


But sister as lover

by SunsetMephistopheles



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Animalistic, Biting, Blood Drinking, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Cunnilingus, Dante (Devil May Cry) is a Mess, Dante is a stupid moron and so is Vergil, Demon Courting, Demon Hunters, Devils, Dysfunctional Family, Everything else is pretty much the same, F/M, Family Drama, Female Vergil (Devil May Cry), Implied/Referenced Cheating, Instead of being a hot dude Vergil is a hot chick, Kinda?, Marathon Sex, Mildly Dubious Consent, Not really but Dante overthinks things, One Night Stands, References to Depression, Shameless Smut, Sibling Incest, Sibling Rivalry, Sparda fam are bad with feelings, Spardacest (Devil May Cry), Swordfighting, Twincest, Unsafe Sex, Violent Sex, slight Dante/V, smut practice
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:47:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 37,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22972762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunsetMephistopheles/pseuds/SunsetMephistopheles
Summary: 'He groan’d anguish’d, & called her Sin,Kissing her and weeping over her;Then hid her in darkness, in silence,Jealous, tho’ she was invisible.'Dante and Vergil were two sides of the same coin, in all manner of the word.
Relationships: Dante/Vergil (Devil May Cry)
Comments: 43
Kudos: 188





	1. Close encounters

Dante smelled her first.

It had been a week after his eighteenth birthday and he was still on a fairly drunken bender. Jobs were few in-between so he'd always had a lot of downtime. That, paired with his demon constitution meant he didn't have to bother about alcohol poisoning or hangovers.

When he finally dragged himself away from the bar and down the road he swallowed back the acidic tint of bile in his throat. He groaned, tipping up his head towards the sky as he stumbled around. It took a lot to get drunk so he was completely broke again but whatever. Demons didn't seem to be in short supply lately.

Above, the night sky was getting cloudier and Dante began to plod back to his shop. He really couldn't be bothered wandering about in a rain storm and was staggering back and forth, his stomach grumbling but not yet edging back into vomit territory.

It was when he walked over an intersection- and flipping off one of the drivers who'd honked at him angrily -that another scent began to flutter at the edge of his senses. The smog of the city usually cloaked everything, the exhausts and overwhelming stink of humans, but now there was something. Something sharp that began to poke at that feral instinct at the base of his mind, a scent that was rousing the beast.

He straightened up, inhaling deeply as he tried to figure out what it was. Usually demons excluded an aura around them like a flame and most were arrogant enough they didn't bother hiding. Dante certainly didn't, not any more anyway, so usually they would just attack him outright if he wasn't out on a job.

This one though was setting off signals in his brain he wasn't sure to interpret- danger but also intrigue. Wariness alongside interest.

That was weird and pissing him off. He hated that mysterious shit and had no patience for it. Just ambush him already.

Though his curiosity was answered when he was a block away from his newly purchased shop when he caught a flash of blue at the edge of his vision and Dante froze in place.

It had been ten years but he instantly knew who was watching him across the street, the tails of her coat swaying in the faint breeze.

Instead of the young eight year old girl he remembered her as, a girl who'd been completely identical to him besides her hair length, was now a grown woman. Pale and broad shouldered with cold blue eyes, long legs braced apart in an easy stance. She was wearing a long, three tailed blue coat over a black vest, with knee high boots and fingerless gloves. She was just as tall as he was and her white hair was pulled back in a French braid that reached the small of her back. In one hand she held Yamato just below the tsuba, thumb pressed lightly against it.

_Vergil._

A flush of demonic energy flared through him, burning through the alcohol in his system in a flash and sharpening his senses to the point he could see her snowy white eyelashes and the serpentine silver patterns on her coat.

For a long minute he just stared at her in shock, with her passively watching him back.

Tentatively, he approached. It wouldn't be the first time he'd thought he'd seen Vergil, flickers at the edge of his vision or something that would make him double take but usually they'd vanish if he went to check. Now though she was just eyeing him, not moving even when he stopped just out of arms reach of her.

"Verg?"

Maybe she was a trap, a hallucination caused by some demon. Wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. 

"Dante." Her voice was low and slightly thick, making a shiver roll up his spine as realization hit.

He hugged her.

In that moment Vergil tensed and a part of him fully expected her to attack him. Instead she just remained ridged and unmoving as Dante gripped her shoulder and waist, pressing himself right against her in a tight embrace.

She was warm and tense against him, her scent filling his nostrils as he tightened his grip on her, a coiled, wounded part of himself finally relaxing at having his twin back. At having Vergil back with him. He'd never realized how empty he'd felt until it was filled, nudging at her earlobe as he sighed against her.

And he resolutely did _not_ think about how her chest was pushing against his in a way it'd never done when they'd hugged as kids.

It was her, he knew that beyond a doubt. Her scent had matured but he instantly recognized it, pressed so tight against the source. Something even demons couldn't fake.

He was unaware he'd started sniffing at her throat, all but panting against her jawline until she snapped his name again and he jolted out of the sudden haze of elation that'd washed over him.

Pulling back, he kept a grip on her shoulders as he stared at her. A wide, toothy smile settled on his face as he grinned at her not at all deterred by the icy look he got in response.

"Hey, my place is just around the corner," he said, tugging at her hand eagerly like he'd done as a kid, "Ya know, get this reunion really rolling in case this storm kicks in."

She didn't respond but didn't slap him away as he lead her down the street towards his recently purchased shop, chattering away to her, "I mean, I'm not even open for business yet, haven't picked a name out. Already getting calls though, you'd figure there were no demon hunters around."

Vergil still didn't say anything but that wasn't out of the ordinary as Dante rambled. She usually was the silent one while Dante bounced around her like an excitable puppy, jabbering about whatever thought caught his fancy. At least that hadn't changed.

He just kicked open the door to his place- he probably should start locking it but whatever -and completely ignored the way Vergil tensed at the threshold before he pulled her through. His scent had already begun to settle in the place.

While he was tempted to keep on hanging off her Dante instead released her hand to leave her standing in the middle of the store. Her eyes were sharp as she peered around the area and Dante wasn't sure what he wanted to do- maybe lean against the wall? Sit down? Hug her again? Rub up against her? He had no idea.

So instead he idly scratched at his bare stomach, loitering around his faulty jukebox as Vergil eyed the area. While he was almost giddy with having her back, his devil nature was confusing him. It keep hissing that there was a threat before him, a rival, and he needed to get her out of his lair.

He strangled that impulse even if he just wished Vergil would stop shooting looks at him like that- like she was trying to figure out if he was an enemy or not as well. Her tight grip on Yamato wasn't helping.

"So uh-"

"You live here." Vergil's cool voice cut him off.

"Yup."

" _Willingly._ "

"Uh, yeah?"

"Hn."

Dante resisted the urge to wring his hands like a child being scolded by a headmaster. Vergil had always been critical of messes even as a kid but now her expression looked as if it had been carved from ice and he suddenly, abruptly, felt embarrassed about the state of his shop for the first time. He'd always hated cleaning.

Leave it to Vergil.

"Um, you can sit if you want," he said feebly after it became apparent Vergil was just to stand there staring at him, gesturing towards the leather couch shoved against the wall.

"I'd prefer not for I fear I will catch the plague if I touch anything within this mess," her lips curled slightly into a sneer and Dante bristled.

Sure it was a trash heap but it was _his_ trash heap and he'd willingly invited Vergil, a powerful demon, into his lair. She may be his twin but they'd spent more time apart than together so his devil was bristling under his skin at his space being criticized by a potential foe.

Dante shoved that down, resisted the urge to snap his teeth at her. He didn't want to start a fight- even if a part of him felt that was a wonderful idea -and okay, he had to admit he lived messily so her comment was kinda warranted. 

Stalking around her he just rather petulantly shoved the stale pizza boxes from his desk, keeping eye contact the whole time. She just stared at him, face a porcelain mask and giving nothing away. 

Vergil had always been fairly stone faced as a kid but it seemed she'd finally perfected the 'I'm too cool to show emotion' thing. It was really starting to piss off Dante, which clashed with the near blind elation still rolling around in his gut.

Frustrated he flopped down onto his chair, propping his ankles up on his desk as he folded his hands behind his head in a display of deliberate nonchalance.

Flippantly he asked, "So, how you been keeping?"

Her eyes narrowed before she replied with an icy, "I lived."

_Okaaay._

"Guess we both did. Figured maybe it was just me, ya know?" he grinned at her. Her glare increased in intensity until it felt like he was trying to stare down a gorgon and he felt adrenaline surge through his veins in preparation to fight. There was also a low flush of arousal he determinedly ignored.

"Considering you hid, I doubt you had any reason to know otherwise." Her voice was soft but her eyes remained cold.

He sat up then, boots thudding on the ground, "Yeah well, I was a freaked out kid so I did whatever the fuck I needed to do to survive."

"Isn't that a sentiment," Vergil said, titling her head back, "Doing what needs to be done. Is that why you are going to become a mercenary dog to the humans?"

 _Okay, what,_ Dante squinted at her, not really knowing why she was pissed off but getting pissed off in turn, "Hey, if you're good at something don't do it for free. 'Sides, demons just seem to be popping up more and more, someone's gonna save the masses and I live for beating the crap out of those bastards."

"Sentimentality then," Vergil said, shifting back on her heels.

"I mean nah. Fighting demons is fun. Can't sit around crying like I used to as a kid, ya know?" he grinned at her as he hesitantly steered the conversation somewhere else, "I mean, if you feel like sticking around-"

"The world is what it is because it doesn't care what it is or how people perceive it. It doesn't ask permission before acts are committed. Sentimentally isn't tolerate in this luckless place, so stop clinging to the dregs of our long gone life and grow up, Dante. I have no time nor patience to coddle your childish delusions."

Dante was a bit taken aback at the blunt dismissal. He'd certainly noticed how standoffish she'd been behaving but now she was borderline hostile. The fact she was still gripping Yamato so tightly that she was ready to draw it in a moments notice made that abundantly clear.

He felt beads of sweat dot his nape as his blood warmed up in preparation for a fight. Vergil's refusal to drop eye contact with him wasn't helping- he still didn't really have much clue about demon instincts so he just kinda based it off crap he knew about dogs. That locking gazes usually meant a challenge and Vergil had always been one to never back off. Even normal humans didn't like eyeballing him too much.

Then the jukebox in the corner lit up briefly, startling him badly enough he twitched. It was a brief second that he broke eye contact to flick his gaze over to the jukebox even as it stuttered and died, but it was enough.

Vergil however didn't rub it in his face. Instead she just turned away, her attention shifting to the numerous battle trophies haphazardly decorating the walls and Dante used the opportunity to study her closely without his frustration getting in the way. He could recognize his own features in hers but they weren't identical any more like they'd been as children. Her face had grown sharper and colder, as if her features were carved from ice, but she was incredibly beautiful. Her lips weren't thin but not full either, even if they were currently pulled down at the corners in a frown. Clearly she wasn't impressed with his left overs stamped to the walls. Or it could be the dust that'd already started to accumulate.

Dante shifted in place, trying to ignore the way her scent was curling up in his nostrils. It was growing thicker the longer she remained in his presence and his demonic nature was sitting heavy in his chest, to the point he had to strangle the urge to go over and scent her again. He even tried to distant himself from the knowledge that his twin had grown into a very beautiful woman, her chilly vestige only enhancing that for him.

He wasn't very successful, considering he was half hard in his pants but he did his best to strangle down the simmering instincts of his demon. It'd happened before, getting turned on during violence fights or after killing a particularly difficult enemy on jobs or even just for no reason at all but now he wasn't sure what he actually wanted to do. Just that Vergil's very presence was making him flustered. 

As he watched her trail a pale finger down the shaft of a Devil Arm axe on the wall Dante reasoned it was just because she was attractive. Objectively. Sure. After all, he knew _he_ was hot so clearly his twin would be as well. It just made sense.

"So uh, got that from a-"

"Manticore."

Dante blinked, "Guess you're still a book nerd, huh."

"Some of us actually enjoy being educated," she snapped.

"Wow okay, really wanna go back to our childhood eh?"

She whirled around so fast her braid flew around behind her in a flash of white. She glared at him, "Strange considering you shed that the instant you were able to." 

With deliberate slowness he got to his feet, sauntering around his desk to give her a smile that was all teeth, "Weren't you always the one harping on about learning from the past? You spent most of your time drowning in all those boring-ass books."

Vergil didn't shy away from his approach, instead stalking closer while managing to look down her nose at him despite them being the same height. Her gaze slid lower, to the amulet sitting heavy on his bare chest.

"I'm surprised you didn't pawn it," she said, a sneer marring her face, "Considering you seemed eager to throw away any connection to your past and hide behind a mask."

"Fuck you, Verg," Dante said.

"Now who's being childish?"

Vergil was a lot different from any of the girls Dante had messed around or even interacted with- not just the 'twin' thing but that she was half demon and that part of him was equal parts furious and intrigued by her. Wanted a fight or fuck or maybe both and it was getting more and more difficult to act casual as his mouth watered over her scent with how close she was. His human self balked at his rising lust but his demon, usually a muted presence, was getting more and more prominent. It also thought forcing Vergil down was a wonderful idea.

Then Vergil reached out to his chest, her fingertips grazing the edge of the amulet before Dante seized her wrist. She snarled right in his face, eyes flaring blue as her other hand snaked out to grab his forearm. He hissed right back at her, bristling at the sudden invasion of his space.

They gripped each other hard enough to leave bruises and Dante could feel Vergil's bones grinding together in his grip while her fingers were steadily crushing his arm. They strained against one another, not shoving but instead just braced against one another.

It lasted all of ten seconds.

Then something inside Dante broke free, fire flooding through his veins and burning his skin as his own eyes flared crimson with his devil soul. He was furious- furious at Vergil's cold, dismissive responses, furious at her condescending bullshit attitude, furious at the confusing, wild attraction he now felt towards her. However rather than shove her away, Dante attacked.

He used her iron grip on him to yank Vergil forward to crash his lips roughly to hers. Vergil stiffened, nails biting into his arm as she tried to push away. He didn't let her, instead kissing her hard and demanding. Dante kissed her with all the simmering rage and frustration and desire that had the word _Vergil_ now attached to it.

Vergil's grip on his arm dropped and Dante took advantage to shove her back against the wall, one hand clamping onto her nape while the other snaked around her hips as he kissed her wildly. His teeth pulled at her lower lip before biting down, making her gasp as her arms wrapped around his ribs tightly enough he could barely breath.

His devil danced across his skin, sharpening his teeth and nails as his senses wrapped around his twin as her scent flooded his nostrils. She smelled of rage and shock but underneath it all was an answering response of arousal.

His hand slid down from her hip to her thigh, feeling the dense muscle through the fabric of her pants. Vergil made a low growl against his mouth even as Dante groped at her leg before sliding up to grab a firm handful of her ass.

With a groan he sucked her tongue into his mouth, the kiss becoming wet and noisy as he ground up hard against her. He hadn't bothered to put on underwear that morning so his stiff cock was rutting up against the fabric of his pants, quickly making the material damp as he dragged Vergil flush against him.

In response Vergil's nails, now sharpened into talons, sank through his coat and into the meat of his shoulders. The spike of pain just heightened his arousal, making him moan against her as his hand squeezed her ass before encouraging her legs to part. He was ridiculously turned on and heady at the idea of being able to fuck her, despite being a sorta virgin.

Of course that wasn't to say Dante wasn't interested in sex- he most certainly _was_ but through a lot of fooling around it had become depressingly apparent he couldn't have full on sex without his demonic nature showing itself. Oral and handjobs he could usually suppress his devil enough but if he got to the main affair then he'd get overly excited or aroused that he'd end up becoming wild enough he would hurt his partner, with claws and teeth and too much strength. The guilt from his clawing or bites got bad enough he started to stray away besides from the occasional make out or handjob, but even with women who didn't mind pain he knew he could easily end up breaking bones by accident so he'd gotten resigned to just having to settle down with his hand. Because there was no way in Hell he was gonna fuck a demon, especially since most of them wanted to kill his ass on sight.

With Vergil though he could grab her with all his strength and it wouldn't even bruise her skin; even after biting her lower lip the wound was already healing over. He could slam her against the wall and not worry about breaking her ribs. He pull away from their kiss to snap bloodied teeth in her face and she wouldn't panic or shriek. Instead she just snarled right back and backhanded him so hard it knocked him on his ass.

Damn, he probably shouldn't find that so arousing. Fuck human guilt and morals, this was _Vergil_ and he wanted her.

He barely had time to sit up before Vergil was in his lap, her teeth sinking right into the curve of where his neck meets his shoulder. He grabbed her braid in a vice grip, trying to yank her off but she just sank her fangs down so hard he could feel his bones creak as his flesh tore open.

Panting, Dante's eyes squeezed shut as her teeth remained embedded in his skin. Rather than trying to pull her off he grabbed her hips and began to drag her over his clothed cock in rhythmic movements. Vergil growled, even as she drank at his wound but didn't get off him even as his movements grew more frantic until he came in his pants, body arching underneath her.

The tension oozed from Dante's body even as Vergil's licking turned into sucking, the deep bite marks already healing.

After a moment Vergil pulled away and Dante couldn't help but whine at seeing the crimson staining her mouth; _his_ colour.

Leaning forward he kissed her again, this time the action being soft and almost gentle. Carefully he sucked on her bottom lip, moaning at the taste of blood mixed with the taste of her. He wanted her in his bed now.

It took some manoeuvring but eventually he managed to tugged her up the stairs to his bedroom though they ended up kissing violently and fiercely on the landing, with Dante humping her thigh like a horny dog. It was only when Vergil broke the banister with her grip that the sound of splintering wood lifted the haze of lust from his mind enough that he finally got her into his room.

Vergil bristled at the doorway and he had to coax her through with excessive groping and kisses, not really understanding her hesitance but trying awkwardly to soothe it. Eventually she shoved him back on the bed, where he sprawled out without a fight on the mess heap of blankets. He expected her to pounce on him, to rip off his pants and just ride him and a part of him fully welcomed it.

Instead she stared down at him, breath short and eyes wide. He grinned at her, knowing his lips were stained in the same red as hers. Tiny silvery blue scales were inching along the skin of her brow and around her eyes, her pupils razor-thin slits among the glowing cerulean of her irises.

_Fuck._

He whined at her, a high, needy noise that made her shiver. Still, she hesitated.

After a moment he forced himself to sit up, shrugging off his red coat and throwing it off on the ground along with his gun holsters. Shirtless, he leaned back on his hands to grin at her. The tent in his pants twitched as Vergil's eyes flicked down to it.

Only then did she move but it wasn't to jump him. Instead it was to methodically remove her clothes with controlled movements.

Watching Vergil undress was frustrating; she carefully unbuckled her boots before pulling her feet free, then peeled off her socks, rolling them up and placing them in the boots. Once done she shrugged off her blue coat, revealing her sleeveless vest and bare muscular arms, before folding it up neatly to place on the bedside table. Then she undid her fingerless gloves and added them to the pile. 

By then Dante was a squirming mess, his devil instincts insisting he act, urging him to just grab Vergil and rip her pants and vest right off her body and take her right there on the floor. Vergil wasn't even being sexy or anything but for some reason watching her slowly remove her layer of clothings was one of the most arousing things he'd seen.

His hips were rolling at nothing and by the time she'd unclipped her belt and shimmed off her pants he was palming at the fabric of his crotch. His eyes were fixed to her when she pulled off her underwear and he barely had time to eye the thatch of glossy white curls before she was back on his lap in nothing but her vest, catching his lips in a kiss.

It was deep and wet, Dante grinding his hips up to hers. Her arousal and scent was strong enough it was making him light-headed and he was panting against her mouth and licking at her teeth while making a hungry growling sound against her.

After some more sloppy kissing Dante groped around to undo her vest with feverish movements. Though his brain promptly turned into mush as it revealed the black silk corset she wore underneath, the dark glossy material in sharp contrast to her pale skin. Dante made an inarticulate noise, pawing at the corset as his hip bucked.

Vergil pulled away from him, looking annoyed as she snapped, "What?"

It took a few moments for his brain to function, Dante dragging his hands up the silken sides of the corset as he couldn't help but tease, "Dressed all up for me?"

"It's nothing like that," she grunted, her glare somewhat ruined by her flustered face, "If I get wounded it keeps the bones and organs in place to facilitate faster healing-"

"Practical, okay yeah sure," Dante agreed with her easily enough, eyes fixed up on the exposed upper slopes of her breasts which were propped up from the bodice, "How do I-"

Vergil smacked his hands away as they went to pull at the lacing at the back, deftly untying it herself with practised movements. He could help but grip her hips, grinding up against her and enjoying the way she inhaled sharply. 

There were two blotches of red high on her cheekbones, the hue stark against her pale skin, while her lips were shiny with saliva but Dante's gaze was completely fixed on her breasts as she eased the bodice from her. Because _damn_ Vergil was stacked underneath all her layers of clothes.

She leaned to the side to carefully put the vest and corset with her jacket so he took the opportunity to bend down to lick a nipple into his mouth. Vergil jolted, a sharp gasp escaping her as Dante eagerly sucked her nipple into hardness while his hand groped and pulled at the other. While he was gnawing away Vergil used shaky hands to undo her braid, her straight white hair falling down to her waist before he started to use more force in his biting and twisting so she grabbed onto his shoulders with a low whine.

Vergil was being noisy enough he wondered if she'd actually even done this before and he enjoyed nipping at her supple flesh while pinching her nipple as she squirmed against him, her scent growing thick and heady even as a damp patch began to form on his pants from where she was rocking up against him.

While he was thoroughly enjoying groping her chest, an idea formed in his head which he eagerly wanted to try. So after a few more gropes he stood up, easily holding Vergil against him to quickly turn and drop her on his bed. He moaned in appreciation as the motion made her heavy breasts bounce but arranged her so her legs were hanging over the edge.

He quickly threw aside his gloves before dropping to his knees between Vergil's spread legs, eyes fluttering shut as he inhaled deeply.

A part of him bristled at the idea of kneeling for Vergil, the bestial shade in his mind greatly disliking the idea of prostrating himself before her. However he knew that a lot of women wouldn't come from penetrative sex and while he was near panting at the idea of getting his cock inside her, he was going to make her writhe first. Was going to make her _scream._

First thing first though. Dante slid his hands back up along her legs up to her bare breasts and kneaded them, rolling the hard pink nipples between his calloused fingers. His mouth soon followed, sucking and then nibbling on the soft flesh. Vergil grunted as he carefully pulled at her nipple with his teeth before moving down, fingers squeezing her breasts before trailing down her sides to rest on her hips. He kissed at her skin, feeling the dense muscle of her abdomen before he settled fully on his knees between her spread legs.

His eyes flicked back up to her face, noting that her pupils her irises sparkled blue with demonic energy before directing his attention to the damp thatch of white curls at the apex of her thighs.

Slowly he slipped his fingers inside her, shuddering at how wet and hot she was, at how easily her flesh parted for him. He curled up his fingers, relishing the way Vergil shivered even as he nudged one of her legs up onto his shoulder while as his free hand slid around her back to push her hips more firmly against his dancing fingers.

His gaze kept flicking from her flushed face to where his fingers were buried inside her, keeping a slow, rhythmic pumping that made her hips jolt. Within moments she was panting, writhing against his hand as wetness dripped down to his wrist. Dante was ridiculously hard just from fingering her, from just watching her reaction and getting light-headed from the heady scent of lust and arousal choking the room. 

As tempting as it was to just push her down and mount her, he persisted in thrusting his fingers inside her heat until the muscles in her abdomen and thigh went tense, a sharp whine emanating from her as her body went stiff.

Dante watched her face the whole time, her cheeks a bright crimson and eyes shut with sweat dotting her brow. He was painfully hard but ignored that to instead slip his fingers free and pull her other leg over his shoulder. Then he wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face between her thighs. 

The scent of her was overwhelming, Dante growling while his tongue delved deep into her as crimson scales pebbled along his flesh. His slick tongue lapped at the sensitive bundle of nerves, nose pressed right against the white curls.

Vergil seized a handful of his hair with a clawed hand, her thighs clamping so firmly around his head she probably would've broken his neck if he'd been human. The combination of human longing and demonic lust was leaving him dizzy and needy as he eagerly mouthed at her, tongue licking long stripes through her wetness as she gasped above him.

The noise of her along with the overwhelming smell of her lust made him cum in his pants again, hips bucking uselessly as he groaned against her. Vergil's thighs were starting to tremble again and he pushed aside a wave of content dizziness to suckle at the small sensitive nub among her heat.

She cried out as her muscles tensed, wetness soaking Dante's chin as she rutted against his face. He kissed her through it, tongue laving in easy, slow motions until Vergil dragged him away with a fistful of hair.

He looked up at her blearily, licking the slick fluid from his lips as he watched her heavy breasts heave with her panting. With a surge of strength she dragged him upright into a frenzied kiss, still tightly gripping his hair while the other hand roamed his shoulders and back.

Another thing with being half demon was the quick recovery time with orgasms- he could get hard minutes after cumming to the point it could become infuriating. Now though the eagerness was just urging him on, the room utterly stinking of sweat and sex which just aided the quick thickening of his cock. 

As easy as it would be to fuck against Vergil's naked body- especially with her aggressive kissing and hard nipples dragging against his chest -he _really_ wanted to get out of his sticky pants. So with some reluctance he pulled away from her, groaning as Vergil's claws scratched deeply at his skin as he lurched away to stand up.

With jerky movements he kicked off his boots and shimmied off his pants, throwing them on the ground carelessly until he was standing naked before Vergil, his cock already bobbing back upwards and flushed red with blood.

Vergil arched a silver eyebrow, somehow managing to look imperious despite being a naked, sweaty mess, with strong thighs parted to show a slick mess in-between, "You don't bother to wear underwear?"

Dante shrugged, unashamed of his nudity, "Feels better this way."

A snort, "Of course that would be your lackadaisical reason."

She opened her arms to him and eagerly he climbed up on the bed, settling himself between her thighs with his hands braced on either side of her head. His cock was stiff, throbbing in time with his heartbeat even as he bent down to pull a taut nipple into his mouth. She groaned even as he shifted so he was leaning most of his weight on a forearm to pinch at her other nipple. With a low hiss she wrapped her legs around his waist, his cock getting trapped between their sweaty stomachs.

Mouth dropping open he pressed his forehead against her breast, rutting against her in frantic, mindless movements. Before long he was shuddering through a dry orgasm, as his cock twitched and balls tightened.

"Fuck," he hissed. He hadn't been so easily excited before and it was getting goddamn ridiculous with how easy it was. He inhaled deeply against Vergil's neck, drooling as he mouthed at the skin. Little wonder some demons went completely nuts with lust. He certainly felt like he was about to.

Vergil's calloused fingertips trailed down his spine, digging into the muscle slightly and making him shiver as he panted against her. Slowly her hands moved back up before carding through his hair, the tips of sharp claws scratching at his scalp.

He groaned as the scent of her, wet and wanting, flooded his nostrils again and made his cock jump. _Fuck, fuck,_ he couldn't remember the last time he'd run through so many close consecutive orgasms and even now strength was returning to his jellied limbs as his devil scorched at his mind, urging him with primal need to claim her to the dismissal of everything else. To fuck her hard and long until they were both unconscious.

His human mind was a mess though, half delirious from the constant stimulation and prolonged arousal. He knew demons could fuck like beasts but being on the receiving end of it was disorientating. Even now his vision was blurry and skin soaked in sweat as he panted against her skin. Moving up he licked at her throat, relishing the way she tilted her chin up to give him better access. He briefly paused at her pulse point before nibbling at the damp skin as she let out a low throaty noise.

"Dante."

He shivered, raising his head to lock eyes with her; her face was flushed, silvery blue scales dotting the skin with her lips and sharp teeth stained red. He eagerly kissed her in a languid movement, moaning into her mouth as their tongues collided and rolled against one another. He shifted onto his knees, still bent over to continuing kissing her as his hands slid underneath her ass to lift up her hips.

Vergil jerked her hips as he thrust hard to bury his cock deep inside her. The sensation of her, hot and tight around him, nearly made him cum instantly as he broke their kiss with a gasp. Instead he bit his lower lip so hard it broke skin before Vergil sank her claws into his shoulder blades and he completely lost his composure at the explosion of pain.

He snarled while lifting her hips up higher as he pulled back before ramming into her, making her cry out as they began to mate in earnest.

The room filled with the lewd sounds of their feral passion, of wet skin slapping against each other while pants and growls was wrung from them as blood ran down Dante's back and stained his mouth even he bucked frantically into his twin. Vergil's head fell back against the bed, breasts bouncing in time with his thrusts as her eyes squeezed shut, Dante's eyes fixed on the way her hard pink nipples were jostled with his movements. Her white hair was strewn about her, some of the strands stained in red even as her claws sank further into his flesh to drag out bloody furrows. Dante felt more than heard himself whisper three words into her ear and Vergil's legs tightened around his hips in response.

After a series of hard, sharp thrusts he couldn't help but lean back slightly to peer down at where they were connected, to where their white curls tangled against one another. The sight of his cock, slick with her fluids, pulling partway out before thrusting back into her made him shake violently as he groaned with his vision tinting red at the side. His claws dug into her hips, red staining his fingers and dripping down onto the sheets while Vergil's own grip shredding at his sides.

Before he could even think his hands had dropped from her hips to press her hands down on the bed besides her head while his teeth were buried into her throat to keep her pinned with her hot blood flooding into his mouth. Her thighs tightened around his hips as he became aware of his cock spilling inside her but continued to fuck her through it, with his prick still remaining hard within her wet heat even with his orgasm. His teeth kept Vergil in place, his grip on her wrists hard enough it would've snapped the bone if she was any less demon.

Distantly he was aware of the bed breaking, Dante thrusting into Vergil so hard and fast the base broke. Neither of them cared, just like he didn't care about all the blood splattering the sheets and staining their skin as they moved in unison with Vergil's heels digging hard into his spine as she gasped and arched beneath him. 

After another fast, almost painful orgasm it just shifted into a flurry of sensations, of hands tangling in hair, of lips mouthing at skin, of teeth and claws ripping through flesh with the taste of blood and sweat thick in their mouths as they both became lost to their instincts in a frenzied, writhing heap.

Dante had no idea how much time passed before he finally succumbed to exhaustion, having destroyed most of the room and keeping himself thrust deep inside of Vergil for most of it. But eventually his ardour faded and Vergil's clinging limbs became lax and soft against him, her breath shifting from vicious snarling to low humming. Until they both finally asleep in a bloodied, sweaty heap on the ruined remains of his bed.

He slept deeply and dreamlessly, in a way he hadn't done for years. Firmly wrapped around Vergil's form in a bloodstained, content mess with his head pressed against her sternum as he snored.

Then at one point in the night the warm body pressed against his moved away, causing Dante to stir from his deep sleep to grope at the empty space while giving a plaintive whine. Calloused fingertips ran through his hair, rubbing at his scalp until he fell back into sleep.

When he woke up the next morning it was to an empty bed with no trace of Vergil. He tried not to feel bitter and hurt about it, and completely failed.

He didn't see her until a year later.


	2. Inbetween

Their reunion the following year wasn't what he expected.

Dante had no idea what the Hell was going through Vergil's head beyond the fact she decided to go crazy and level a city block via raising a giant demonic tower.

Sure, Vergil could certainly be _dramatic_ but opening up Temen-ni-gru was kinda going overboard even by her standards.

That creepy bald guy and his cryptic invitation just pissed Dante off, even moreso than the demons that decided to appear and trash his shop. And that stupid-ass jukebox that wouldn't goddamn work properly so he just punched it before brawling with the Hell Pride demons.

Though now he knew where Vergil was, after a year of silence. He was flippant but beneath it all he was severely, utterly furious. 

He spent most of the way fighting through the tower completely pissed, still angry about that night a year ago even with his carefree front. Honestly he would've preferred it if Vergil had just beat him up that day and left. He would've gotten over that, at the very least.

Instead he was woke up alone in a trashed bed. His very content mood completely vanished when it became abundantly clear Vergil wasn't coming back even if he lingered around the shop like a lovesick moron for a month with some deluded hope she'd show back up.

Though she'd cleaned him up before she'd left so that was something. Also cleaned and folded up his clothes. The mess probably offended her or some stupid thing. Whatever. He was still pissed over it and had no idea how people dealt with one night stands considering how garbage he felt over waking up to an empty bed.

Also didn't help that her scent had lingered in his room for weeks, giving him fairly intense wet dreams, and he ended up stuffing the bloody sheets in his closet rather than throwing them out with the ruined bed. When he was feeling especially pathetic he'd drag them out and bury his face in the torn up fabric with his hand around his cock.

He kept that simmering anger as he fought his way through the demons infesting Temen-ni-gru and even confronted a cerberus. That was a fairly wild fight and once he killed the giant three-headed mutt some random woman crashed through the wall on a motorbike and carrying a rocket launcher nearly the same height as her.

_Okay, whatever._

However he wasn't there to babysit some human and considering she was wearing an armoury he left her to it to carry on prowling about.

It was annoying as he could smell Vergil, just lingering patches of her scent that made his nostrils tingle, but couldn't track her down since the stupid tower was like a maze. There was also the weirdo clown demon making a nuisance of itself and Dante tried to stab the stupid thing but it danced off before he could. 

Though he encountered that andom woman again when she nearly fell to her death, Dante grabbing her ankle and got repaid with a bullet in the head. _Rude._

After some yelling he just let her go, letting her fall further down the side of the tower though Dante did offhandedly mention to that stranger that he had fairly rotten luck with women anyway from where she was clinging to the tower and still trying to shoot him. The fact the current one he was in love with was his hostile twin who slept with him once before completely abandoning him was a fairly big testament to that. He didn't mention that last part though. This stranger seemed pissed off enough as if even if Dante couldn't figure out what she was even doing in Temen-ni-gru. Most of the nearby humans either ran or died when it rose. 

When he went up the stairs after dismissing that gunned out stranger and fighting more demons he didn't get any more answers, despite Vergil waiting for him there at the top of the tower. She seemed surprised to see him though and he was a bit caught off guard at the abrupt reunion. Above the rain was falling at a steady pace, the top of the tower giving a broad view of the surrounding city and the full moon.

She overall looked the same, the same blue coat and braided hair with Yamato held tight. Despite that when she turned to face him fully he could see the bags under her eyes, the furrow in her brow. Her cheekbones had gotten sharper, giving her already angular features a more vicious cut. Dante eyed her as he approached, his hair quickly becoming sodden in the downpour.

"You showed up." Vergil's voice was soft.

Dante gave her a mirthless smile, "You sure know how to throw a party. No food, no drinks, and the only babe left is a right asshole."

Vergil gave him a disapproving look and Dante nearly snarled at her. Whatever, she totally was one. He could barely concentrate through the haze of fury settling over him even as Vergil said something to him in low tones.

He just waved a hand dismissively, not caring about what she was trying to say, "Whatever. At any rate, it's been a whole year since we last met. How about a kiss from your little brother?" His tone was vicious at the end of his sentence.

Vergil actually looked away from him at that, a troubled set to her lips. High above the rain intensified, her white hair gleaming like wire. She looked almost ethereal.

The rest of their verbal exchange a short and fairly nasty, Dante entirely uninterested in trying to play nice with Vergil's expression turning stone cold again and then they were fighting.

He never really got the people who thought women were weak- he'd gotten the crap beat out of him enough times by Vergil as a kid to know that was complete bullshit. And she proved that again as an adult by completely thrashing him in their first actual fight.

Yamato felt like ice every time the blade sliced open his flesh and he was probably only saved by being gutted from Rebellion's durability as it could endure Yamato's clashes. She deflected any bullets and dodged or parried a large amount of his attacks and the ones she didn't she just tanked the damage. Sometimes she moved so quickly he couldn't even follow until Yamato was cutting through him. It was completely ridiculous and frustrating and ended with Vergil doing some stupid trick with Yamato to ram the hilt so hard into his gut she threw him against one of the statues when he collapsed with a groan.

He'd clipped the tip of her braid in the fight so her long hair had unravelled, hanging down to her waist in a straight sheet of white as she easily deflected his shots from Ebony and Ivory. Dante grimaced, shoving Rebellion's tip into the ground as he struggled to stand back up.

"Why do you refuse to gain power? The power of our father, Sparda?" Vergil tilted her head to the side, water dripping off her like waterfall. Yamato's blade gleamed as another fork of lightning lit up the stormy clouds above.

With a grunt Dante surged back to his feet, the cuts from Yamato already healing as he said flippantly, "Father? I don't have a father. I just don't like you, that's all."

Vergil straight up rolled her eyes at him, as if he was a child throwing a tantrum. He attacked her automatically, slashing down at her with Rebellion's heavy blade only for her to catch it with Yamato.

The two strained against one another as their blades screeched and spat sparks, in a mockery of how they'd tested each other a year ago. This close he could see the purple bruising of the bags around her eyes, how bloodshot her whites were, the faint cracks in her lips even as strands of her ivory hair fell over her face. It was a far cry from how she'd been when they last met, first so poised and immaculate then sweaty and flushed. Now she looked so _worn_ for some reason and the unease caused his stance to falter for a split second and of course she took advantage.

With a sharp twist of her wrist she managed to rip Rebellion out of his grip, Yamato sinking right into his abdomen before Rebellion even struck the ground. He gagged, bending over as he reflectively grabbed the katana's blade even as Vergil jammed it deeper through his stomach and further out his back. Blood puddled on the ground by his feet, quickly diluting in the persistent rain.

After a long moment of staring at him she said quietly, "Foolishness, Dante, foolishness." She twisted the blade, leaning closer to him as he choked on a mouthful of blood, "Might controls everything. And without strength, you can't protect anything. Let alone yourself."

"You got everything you wanted from me," Dante said, tone tired. He could feel his blood spilling over, organs twitching around the razor sharp blade puncturing them. 

"Not quite." 

With a sharp flourish she ripped Yamato out of him, knocking him backwards to lie spread eagle on top of Temen-ni-gru as the rain beat down upon them both. The deep wound in his gut was steadily knitting itself back together, the water washing the blood away but his limbs felt like lead as his blood cooled.

"It's the love of beasts, isn't it," Vergil said, softly enough he almost couldn't hear her over the rain as she knelt down next to him, "It makes us wild and savage. Burns us from the inside out. Consumes just as easily."

Dante just sighed, a deep tired noise as his eyes slid shut. He felt Vergil's fingers card through his hair, a soft touch just like the last one she'd given to him all those nights ago, before her fingertips slid down his face to his throat. Briefly her nails dug into his skin before she grabbed the amulet around his neck and yanked it off in a rough movement. He could barely even let out a small noise of protest.

It took a ridiculous amount of effort to move, but he forced himself up with painful, jerky movements. He didn't get further than pushing himself up onto his elbows when Vergil attacked him again, this time ramming Rebellion right into his sternum hard enough she pinned him back on the ground like a butterfly upon a board.

He wheezed, boiling pain flooded through his body. Strange that when Yamato was cutting him it was so cold it nearly wasn't pain but now with Rebellion rammed through his chest the deep pulsating agony was starting to seep through his body. It was a pain unlike any other injury, like fire was painstakingly crawling its way through his veins and making his vision spot and breath stutter.

Distantly he was aware of Vergil straightening back up with his amulet in hand as that scarred old man showed up. Their low discussion turned into background noise as the burning in his veins intensified to be unbearable. Then Rebellion flared, the rubies bursting with demonic energy and Dante's entire body seized. The sword went flying up even as Dante leapt back up to his feet, his limbs burning and senses throbbing as he fixated completely upon Vergil.

He was attacking her before he could even think, his twin managed to puncture his hand with her sword before he could grab her but he could see her surprise.

Her eyes glittered blue, pupils slit as she stared at him before saying haughtily, "I see, the devil inside you has awakened as well."

Snarling he just ripped his hands free of Yamato, the wound healing nearly instantly before he lashed out at her to which she nimbly flipped out of the way in a flurry of coattails. 

He felt completely drunk, heady and lurching as tried to stay upright as his vision burned. Vergil made a move to attack, only to be waved away by that scarred old man from earlier. They said something but Dante could barely breathe over the twisted energy crawling its way through his body, barely even noticing when the two left. He looked down at his hands, watching the flesh and skin twisting and warp in an entirely unnatural way before the taut tension of barely contained energy _snapped_.

For a brief, euphoric moment he wasn't human at all, instead fully covered in scales, thick leathery skin with wings unfurling as the rain beat down above, feeling it slide across horns and down his burning skin before the energy vanished and he was back to himself.

Dante swayed, feeling stunned and cold before he fell forward in a motionless heap.

When he came to the rain had stopped. Dante lay there for several minutes before forcing himself up, feeling as if he'd gone an a full weekend bender. Vergil was no where to be seen and her absence was like an missing tooth- a weird gap that felt raw and unnerving. Rebellion was lying a few feet away and when he picked it up the rubies flared briefly as the heat settled fully in his chest.

He eyed the sword, still a bit confused as to what the heck just happened but at least it meant Vergil hadn't killed him. She'd certainly beat the shit out of him though, Dante giving a mirthless snort at the thought even as he hefted the sword over his shoulder. 

Touching his abdomen he dragged his fingers across the smooth flesh which had been completely hacked open not even a minute ago. Then his hand went to his throat and Dante's lips curled; Vergil had stolen his necklace for some stupid reason. Why would she do that? Some spiteful last word? Or did she think he wasn't worth it? Was this whole stupid chase over that? If that was the case why didn't she just steal it a year ago?

His expression turned dark, lips curling to bare his fangs before he slammed a fist against one of the statues ringing the top of Temen-ni-gru. His thoughts twisted angrily before a deep cracking noise cut through the air and he watched as the statue cracked before breaking into a dozen pieces. He looked from the now broken statue to his fist, brow quirked as he realized just what had happened and Vergil's comment about his 'demon' awakening. If this was how Vergil felt all the time, such a boost in strength and recovery speed, little wonder she'd handed his ass to him.

 _Now though, I can do it right back at her. And take back my damn amulet,_ he thought with a snarl. He didn't really care about her reason for stealing it, he was just going to beat her down and take it back. Especially with this new strength she'd inadvertently granted him through Rebellion.

Half falling and half running down the side of Temen-ni-gru he marvelled at the big leap his senses and reflexes had taken, easily killing the demonic gargoyles that swooped up to lash out at him. Their blood rained down with him, making his nostrils flare and saliva flood his mouth as he shot and hacked his way through the ballistic screeching flock of devils. He felt drunk with the sensation, with the familiar loving burn of a battle.

Though his giddiness was cut short when he was abruptly swallowed by a giant flying demonic whale.

_What the fuck._

Fighting through the guts of a massive devil whale wasn't really what he planned but it was rather fun despite being constantly surrounded by pulsating flesh. The creature was massive enough it basically had its own ecosystem and he massacred his way through the demons living within the thing until he found its hearts. Then it was flailing around as the giant whale fell out of the sky and he had to hack his way out of its eyeball to escape its corpse and he burst out in a shower of blood. And great, he was back at the bottom of the tower. 

Flicking gore off his arms he grimaced at the horrid stench clinging to him, his hair red and face stained. There was also a big cartoony 'WELCOME' and arrow painted on the nearby wall, probably by that stupid clown running around and Dante was already fed up with that thing. He never liked normal clowns and demon ones were even more annoying.

There was also that rude lady from before but Dante completely ignored her as he eyed the sign before muttering, "So, this is the next stage?"

More damn stairs anyway. Great. Grimacing he picked a piece of demon skin from his hair before doggedly making his way back to the door only for the woman to call out for him to wait.

Dante hissing through bared teeth, the heat in his chest flaring angrily before he spun away, slapping the woman's gun away from his face and snapping, "If you're asking for a date, forget it. Because I made it a point not to go out with women who try to kill me. Not any more, anyway."

The woman sneered at him, "Date a demon? Forget it. I'm not that desperate. Besides, I don't really care for guys who stink like blood."

 _Weak,_ the vicious, bestial part of his brain hissed but Dante ignored it to instead shoot the demon which had been sneaking up behind her just as she did the same. He couldn't help but tease her as they went guns blazing against the demons because really, only the crazy humans stayed around the city when Temen-ni-gru and he recognized someone on the hunt.

Her comment of not having a name was weird though but whatever. If she wanted to have an identity that was her problem. Or decision, either or. Anyway he leapt out of the pack of demons soon enough, cheerfully saying he'd leave it to her since he's got a party to catch. She gave him the stink eye but didn't demand he run back and save her, which got her some brownie points in his book.

Fine, so he had a problem with liking stubborn, rude women who preferred to use violence than words. He blamed that stupid demon part of his brain for that, especially since it was now a heckload _louder_ after getting nearly gutted by his own sword. Of course that wasn't really an excuse for that crap he did with Vergil a year ago but he ruthlessly strangled that down, along with that part of him that was even more eager since she'd bested him in battle. To make her bleed under his teeth again.

Stupid demon.

Continuing forward he had a distant wonder as to what the hell a opera house was doing in an ancient demonic tower made by cultists before a swarm of bats fluttered around, consolidating into a black mass that a demon rose up out of. He could certainly appreciate the fact the demon largely resembled a naked green skinned woman, red hair doing a fairly poor job of concealing her full breasts. There was barely a flicker of interest from his devil soul even if Dante's human self could appreciate an attractive naked woman when one was standing right in front of him. She smelled gross though, like rotten seaweed.

With easy movements she sauntered towards him, the bats clinging to her hips and legs like some living skirt. Placing a claw tipped finger against her plump bottom lips she smiled at him playfully, "Welcome, sir. Is this your first time here?"

Usually he didn't mind playing along with devils that looked like hot babes but now he just felt completely aggravated by the coquettish tone, like a cat with its ruff up so he just responded with a curt, "Yeah, it is."

The devil reached out with a hand, as if to caress his face and Dante was turning before he even thought, teeth fangs as he snapped at the offending limb. With a lightning quick movement the demon was on top of the stage, the bats screeching and swirling around her like a tornado.

"Spoken for, are we?" The demon's eyebrows rose before she smirked, "Perhaps I can steal you away."

He didn't respond, just yanking Rebellion down and letting the tip collided with the floor in a burst of sparks before attacking. Compared to Vergil, she was easy- too slow and telegraphed her moves to a ridiculous degree. He barely got burned by the lightning and miasma and it didn't take him long before he struck down the green skinned demon after hacking his way through the swarm of bats.

When she collapsed he caught her around the back, wrinkling his nose as that stench wiggled right up his nostrils and damn she stunk. All the bleeding wasn't helping either.

Looking unbothered about her defeat the demon gave him an innocent smile, going to try and stroke his face again as she said, "My you're sweet-"

His devil reacted before his human brain could, his free hand seizing the demon by the throat in an iron grip. With a burst of burning strength he crushed the devil's throat completely in a one handed grip and with a shriek she burst, transforming into her Devil Arm form as he literally crushed the life out of her.

"Uh okay," Dante said awkwardly, holding the Devil Arm in the shape of a guitar, the fire scorching his brain receding back into the burning coal in his chest.

Crap, was this going to become commonplace? His demon self was so much stronger now and while it gave him a massive boost in his abilities it seemed the downside that the vicious, feral part of his mind was so much more prominent and strong. He didn't really have a habit of killing demons with his bare hands like that.

Shaking that off he continued through the tower, dealing with all the annoying puzzles and powering a dusty old mechanism with some stupid magic orb to switch some ledges around and open more doors and fuck he was sick of the damn tower. Those moron cultists seemed to have gone out of their way to make it as annoying as possible. That, and spending way too much time on the sculpture and carving of elaborate designs everywhere.

He even ended up in a marble hallway but this time he found the prone bloodied form of that scarred old man lying near the door. He kept his gun out, having seen enough horror movies to know where it could potentially go before tilting his head to one side to avoid getting a bullet in the back of his skull.

"Well that was quick," he snarked, turning around to face that human woman. 

She got mad at that, yelled some crap at him about killing the old geezer and he couldn't help but mock her over it. And once again the woman tried to shoot him- despite knowing it did jackshit -and he played along. She was good but _way_ too reliant on her guns to the point he easily manhandled her and tossed her around but she was also tough, leaping back up to her feet even when he threw her into the wall and still trying to kick his ass. 

It was only he pointed his own gun point blank at her did she settle down somewhat though she kept ranting about that dead guy, even admitting that he was her father.

Dante looked at her features, cute even if her face was twisted up in an nasty scowl, and then the ugly bald dude lying in a pool of his own blood a few feet away. Huh. She must take after the mother.

Still, he understood the whole 'dramatic' family thing, even mentioning he had his own dysfunctional family. Which was a fairly big understatement to all the bullshit that had happened but whatever.

"This is my father. My family! This was all supposed to end by my hand!" she just shouted at him, still waving her gun in his face.

He just arched an eyebrow, supremely unconcerned by the gun before her expression crumbled and her arm dropped. She turned away, staring at the man's corpse with a deeply aggrieved twist to her mouth.

"Aren't ya gonna shoot?" he asked, just to be a dick. When she didn't respond he shrugged, "Well that's a switch."

"Just go. I don't care any more." she said. And ah crap, it looked like she was about to cry so he turned and got the Hell out of there.

He forgot about that drama when he found another magical artefact and got in a brawl with the demon guarding it, after said demon yelled at him about his odour- ( _What_ ) -and ended up getting punched into the ground hard enough to leave a Dante sized crater even as he took out the devil's eyes with a well timed slice with Rebellion and the demon fled after screaming some more insults at him. Asshole.

Then the artefact damn near killed him before that stupid clown showed up to tell him a story. So Temen-ni-gru was actually a portal to the Demon World and Vergil controlled it after she nicked his part of the amulet and was making her way to the basement to activate it. So Vergil had completely lost her mind, good to know. Also the artefact sucking his life away was a key and the clown ran off cackling. After some squinting at his burning hand he just flickered to his devil form which seemed to fix the problem- and sensation of scales and wings was still completely weird and he couldn't help but think as to how Vergil looked as a demon. He'd seen snatches of it, with blue and silver scales and long teeth and claws, but that was about it.

Shoving that thought to the back of his mind he set off, briefly pausing to kill a demon horse before carrying on through the bowels of the tower. This time he was closely aware of Vergil's presence as he made his way through the halls, of her scent that grew more and more prominent. Maybe that demon from before had a point about his smell, because he was basically tracking Vergil down like a bloodhound and found her complaining quietly to herself in a circular room that must be the control centre for Temen-ni-gru. A pool of her blood lay in a small basin in the middle of the room and Vergil's head snapped up when he teased her.

"You seem to be in a bad mood."

"Dante." She pivoted neatly to face him fully, hand dropping down to grip Yamato's hilt and the burning presence in his chest was pleased that she was treating him like a threat.

He smiled mirthlessly at her, "So... my mother's amulet is the key that unlocks the door to the demon world. Good plan, pop."

"Just the opposite actually. Originally it was the key to the demon world but was given to human as a gift."

She smelled good, damnit. Enough that he kept getting distracted from his fury which was consolidating into a confused ball of lust as they sniped at one another. But there was also another odd smell clinging to her, soft and faint, something that was almost milky which made his demon rumble happily which Dante had no idea what to do with that information. But then Vergil decided to forgo Yamato and got in a full on brawl with him which alright, he found _way_ too hot and trying to fight with a stiff cock was actually fairly hard. 

_Ha, hard._

Even Vergil punching him right in the face with a gauntlet-clad fist barely made a dent in his mirth and if anything turned him on even more. He couldn't even muster up the energy to be embarrassed at knowing Vergil could smell how aroused he was. His senses sharpened even further with excitement as their combined blood splattered all over the floor.

Then the human woman interrupted and only great restraint stopped Dante from killing her for interfering. There was some more cursing and yelling, with Dante trying to fight Vergil while trying to avoid being shot in the face with a rocket. Vergil smacked the annoying lady away before attacking Dante again and they were fighting while the human rolled back up to her feet, looking completely confused. Which well, Dante was pretty damn confused as well because what the Hell was she even doing down there?

Though that got answered when the clown demon showed up again out of nowhere, called the human woman 'Mary' before smacking her across the room while tossing aside her rocket launcher with a cackle. Not really the name Dante would've guessed for her but Vergil's enraged hiss cut through that musing.

"Insane buffoon! I don't know where you came from but you don't belong here. Now leave!" her last words were a snarl as she leapt forward but to Dante's surprise the demon actually caught Yamato's blade between his hands before the katana could cleave him in two.

The clown tisked, its mismatched eyes glowing, "Zowie, that was close. But you've taken quite a trouncing today, haven't you Vergil?" the demon's smile stretched even further until it looked like his face was about to split in two, "You could have chopped me into confetti by now if you're in your tip-top condition. But you've been through so much these last few months haven't you, hmm? Carrying not just yourself but-"

Vergil managed to rip Yamato free of his grip with an enraged growl only for the clown to punch her hard in the abdomen which caused her to flinch and get knocked backwards. She grimaced, pushing herself back to her feet but keeping one hand pressed against her gut as if in pain. Dante was just confused about the whole situation, especially since Vergil apparently didn't even know who that nutty clown was. He just assumed it was another one of the demons locked up in Temen-ni-gru.

"You've lost," the demon grinned before its form rippled and shifted into the scarred old man, "Because you've underestimated humans."

Huh.

"What's going on?" the woman, Mary, asked in a small voice. Which fair enough, if that old geezer really was her father and she'd been sobbing over his dead body moments before.

"Good girl. Pure and Innocent... just like your mother." he said, which was pretty creepy in Dante's opinion.

Mary was enraged, shouting that he was a bastard before yanking out another pistol. Before she could shoot her father, he transformed back into the jester devil with long claws grabbing a fistful of her hair before smashing her face onto the floor and stunning her. The demon cocked its head to the side, bells jingling before looking over at Vergil who was still grimacing with a hand pressed against her abdomen.

"You want to know why the spell didn't break, hmm Vergil? You have two amulets, and Sparda's blood. You've got everything you needed to unleash the evil..."

Dante was completely fed up at this point- he just wanted to kick Vergil's ass, not deal with a nutcase clown, "I told you before I don't like anybody with a bigger mouth than mine."

Said clown was _quick_ and dodged all his bullets, flitting across the wall and ceiling with a great deal of cackling before it managed to kick him right in the head. And damn, the clown was strong too with Dante feeling the bone of his skull crack. He lay on the ground as the clown continued yelping and hollering, feeling the bone knitting itself back together feeling even more annoyed. When he managed to balance on a knee it was hard to pay attention to the demon's rantings but from the gist of it- and him stabbing his own daughter -it seemed the blood of the descendent of the sacrifice was needed.

Though at least now everyone was pissed off- Mary managing to leap back up to her feet despite the blood gushing from her nose and leg, shoving the muzzle of her rocket launcher right in the clown's face even as Vergil and Dante jumped forward to cross their swords across his neck, even as the demon reverted back to his human self.

Said old geezer wasn't overly worried and just sneered at them before remarking to welcome chaos and Temen-ni-gru activated. The sudden rush of ancient power breaking through the dissolved seal knocked them all off balance and the asshole took advantage of that to knock them all off the core as it began to rise with a rumble of earth and ancient machinery.

Dante was really getting sick of being thrown around.

"Wait for the birth of a new god! I shall take over the power of Sparda!"

He flipped off the ranting old man more on reflex than anything, the burst of escaping energy choking the air interfering with his senses. He couldn't see where Vergil was but he was able to stop the human lady, Mary, from falling down trough the pits opening up around the ground as the floor collapsed. They lurked near the sides until the rumbling stopped, even with the ceiling completely caved in so they could see the control matrix for Temen-ni-gru now at the top with the crimson demonic energy pulsating like a lodestone. He sniffed, grimacing as all he could smell was sulphur and dust. Where did Vergil go?

Next to him Mary had ripped off her sleeve, using the cloth to wrap up the stab wound in her thigh. She ignored the blood staining her nose and lips, instead finishing off the knot before circling around to glare up at the lit top of Temen-ni-gru with a determined expression on her face.

"Are you gonna go?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Yes. I'm going to finish him off."

He shrugged, "Well you might as well forget it. 'Cause you're no match for him."

She didn't even blink, "Regardless, I must go. I had a chance to stop him before but I couldn't. I'm responsible for all this mess."

"Responsible? Does it bother you that much?"

Mary spun around to glare at him, "He's my father. Besides, who else can undo what he's done? A demon like you, wouldn't understand."

Dante scoffed- he saved her life twice now and she was still being rude as fuck. He watched as she fiddled with her gun before firing off a harpoon and quickly shoot up the raised mechanism of the tower.

Fine whatever, she can go get in a punch up with her dad for all he cared. He was still gonna try hunting down the crazy old guy himself and put his boot up his ass. Especially since he had to climb the tower _again_ and that pissed him off anyway so he set off with a few complaints grumbled under his breath.

Especially since the tower was collapsing, whole chunks of the side falling off to smash down into the streets below. It made getting up there a pain in the ass since chucks of rubble and stone nearly brained him several times. Then when he climbed far enough to find a door another demon showed up and Dante killed it like all the rest before finding an elevator in a two thousand year old tower. Alright then. Of course he couldn't even prowl around a library without that human lady raging out at him for some reason and seriously, he would've thought she would've gotten it through her head that bullets did jackshit to him and quite frankly he didn't find it funny anymore. So he scolded her and when that didn't work he just beat the crap out of her until she got the hint.

Sure, she may want to stick it to her dear old dad but she was at the end of human endurance. When that finally got through to her she gave up, though she did offer him her rocket launcher and asked to 'free' her father. Which whatever, killing the old geezer was on his list anyway so might as well kill two birds with one stone. It was a neat gun anyway so he wasn't about to turn his nose up at it and took it without a fuss while she just crumbled to the floor. Eh she would probably live if she got out before he destroyed Temen-ni-gru.

Following that there was a fairly entertaining fight where he was up against a weird shadowy clone of himself, looking as he did as a demon. There was probably some 'deep' message about dealing with himself in the mirror match but Dante really didn't care about that and just beat down the shadowy clone until it dissolved into miasma and he made his way to the top of Temen-ni-gru. The bells were still going nuts and high above the sky looked like the eye of a hurricane- if a hurricane was filled with wild demonic energy and the eye was a massive portal directly to Hell. _Great._

Still, there was no where else to go except up and so he did.

Being in Hell was completely wild considering the place seemed to be a general 'fuck you' to physics, with giant floating buildings, demons all over the place, grounds that were basically just giant pools of blood and mirrors appearing out of nowhere before fighting through what seemed like a giant hour glass while the whole world spun around like some carnival ride. Admittedly it was fun but he had a goal and while beating the crap out of demons while walking through a fever dream was entertaining, he had work to do.

Eventually the old man showed up again, when Dante found a weird vortex of power that stunk like rotten fruit for some reason and he nearly got his head taken off.

That old idiot really wasn't sneaky though and for some reason he looked like a horrible facsimile of Sparda with a toxic miasma clinging to him. Christ, humans really needed to get over that. Either way he was gonna die so Dante just rolled his eyes at the stupid speech but then the old man did something else and turned into a giant demonic blob.

Alright, not really what Dante had expected.

"Dude, my father wasn't so hideous," Dante said, making a face at the way the giant blob was pulsating and kinda oozing all over the place. Like seriously, Sparda had always been pretty fussy about his appearance- a trait Vergil had inherited. Dante was a bit more casual.

Still, he had a job to do and it turned out said job was gonna be _tedious_ since that stupid devil blob was ridiculously tanky. Most of the fight was him just hammering at that thing with all his weapons on hands while avoiding getting punched into the walls. There was just limbs everywhere and occasionally giant crystals smacking him in the head and honestly the fight wasn't even fun, it was just a massive pain the ass. Slowly but surely he could feel his strength waning- he'd been fighting through that stupid tower for hours and now there was a giant annoying blob thing that just wouldn't die.

With a grunt he got knocked backwards, boots skidding on the weird miasma of the floor with Rebellion held tight. His breath was laboured, Dante grimacing at the way his muscles burned and ached. 

Across from him the blob shimmered and flexed before a disembodied voice barked from it, "No use! Regardless of how strong you are, you are nothing but a half breed. You cannot defeat a pure demon, the real Sparda!"

_'Real Sparda' my ass._

He shifted into a bracing stance as a clawed hand shot out of the mass and stretched towards him but then halfway there it was abruptly sliced off, the arm rolling off several feet away with the fingers twitching even as the blob let out a started shriek.

Dante tensed, seeing Vergil looking down at them both from where she was perched on a broken pillar with her white hair flowing down past her shoulders. In a smooth movement she straightened up, flipping Yamato around in her grip as she pointed it down at the seething blob of demonic energy with a disgusted look on her face.

"I've come to retrieve my power," she said calmly, "You can't handle it."

She jumped down to land neatly in front of Dante, the tip of Yamato a hairsbreadth from his chest before he could blink. 

However Vergil made no further movement to attack him and Dante couldn't help but smirk, "Look at you, making a big dramatic entrance and stealing my spotlight."

For a moment she simply eyed him before saying in a haughty tone, "Well... You don't possible believe that he deserves to be our main event now do you?"

With a flick of her sword she knocked the severed arm back to the demonic blob, which grabbed it mid-air before shoving the arm back onto its missing limb. Dante sidled closer to her, now that Yamato wasn't pressed right up against him. She gave him a brief glance but ultimately kept her focus on the thing before them.

"Now that you've mentioned it, you're right."

Of course the giant annoying blob monster didn't like that and started huffing and puffing about how they had no chance, how it had the power of Sparda and seriously he got sick of demons who wouldn't shut up with the boring monologues.

Vergil seemed to be much the same as she snapped at the devil, "You should come to realize you cannot control the power of Sparda."

"You're wasting your time, buddy." Dante said, playfully hip checking her and only getting an irritated look for his actions, "I think he needs to learn the hard way."

They fought so _good_ together. It was ridiculous but Dante felt completely focused and rejuvenated fighting with his twin at his side. When they were kids they'd always had the 'thinking the same thing' mentality, even if their attitudes were wildly different. They just knew each other so well and were barely away from one another. Even over a decade later that in sync feel settled back under his skin, sharpening his senses and feeling more than seeing Vergil's strikes and movement as they rapidly beat down the twisted mass of devil energy, hacking and slashing away at the horrid thing until it was screeching and near dead.

Rebellion and Yamato punched the thing simultaneously, sinking right to the hilt in the roiling dark form. It howled and spun, sending them both skidding off with the swords still sticking out of it. Synced strikes of the hilts and both swords were knocked free to be grabbed, with Dante now holding Yamato and Vergil gripping Rebellion. 

Yamato felt cold and aloof in his grip, the katana an icy presence against him as they both cleaved open the miasma. The form shrieked and pulsated with the eerie form of its clown and human faces forming through the roiling mass. Dante watched in some disgust, even as he tossed Yamato back over to Vergil even as she threw back Rebellion in a mirror movement. He drew his guns and when Ebony got slapped out of his hand by a flailing tentacle Vergil grabbed it as the pistol flew past her.

Vergil shifted and Dante pressed himself against her so they were back to back, pistols trained on the thrashing demon as she remarked, "I will try it your way for once."

"Remember what we used to say?"

She smiled then, faint but sure, and when the mass reared back up they said together, _"Jackpot!"_

The thing screamed as the bullets struck its exposed core, flailing around and screeching something about Sparda yet again as its whole body began to collapse and dissolve.

Vergil huffed, "Not very classy for someone's dying words," before she tossed Ebony over her shoulder to him.

Then the blob fully vanished and there was a sword with their twin amulets swirling around it like some magical item from a cartoon. Next to him Vergil went ridged, her whole body perking up like a dog spotting a squirrel. She darted towards the sword even as it began to fall through the rift that appeared and Dante instinctively chased after her.

There was some weird vertigo of being upside down but not really and then they were in some weird space river with the transformed Force Edge impaling the ground between them. Vergil had always been quicker and she snatched up the sword before he could, bounding back as he swiped at it. A part of him wanted to yell at her because seriously, what was with all this crap? He was sick of that damn tower. He glared, straightening back up and feeling the chains of the amulet dig into his wrist.

"Give that to me," Vergil demanded, pointing at him with the sword.

"No way, you've got your own."

"But I want yours, too."

He bared his teeth at her, "What are you going to do with all that power huh? No matter how hard you try, you're never gonna be like father."

She actually flinched at that, a weird spasm on her pale features that made him pause. Then she snarled, a vicious inhuman noise before crossing the space between them in a single bound with the Force Edge slashing down at his head. Rebellion sparked off it before he grabbed the Force Edge blade in hand, Vergil's own hand gripping Rebellion's blade. The river water was icy cold and endless as it crashed against their shins before rushing down the cliff to fall into the black nothingness surrounding them.

Blood stained the blades as they strained against each other before Dante fixed his burning glare onto Vergil, "We are the Children of Sparda. Within each of us flows his blood. But more important, his soul!"

He knocked her back, them both skidding away in the water from the force of it and Dante shuddered. For all Sparda was a demon, even killing some human broad to seal it, he'd roped off that stupid tower for a reason and here his bullheaded kid was raising the damn thing. Maybe Sparda was dead, who really knows, but Dante was at his limit with all of Vergil's bullshit. And there'd been a lot of it today, not counting her crap a year ago.

So instead he jerked his chin up, glaring at her as he said, "And now, my soul is saying it wants to stop you!"

Vergil just stared at him, as if he was doing something particularly stupid, before raising her hand where the blade cut was already healed before she laughed mockingly at him, "Unfortunately our souls are at odds, brother. I need more power."

"And we're supposed to be twins." He tried to say it mockingly but he was more tired than anything. He'd rather hopped, when she intervened with that stupid blob monster, maybe she'd gotten over her whole genocidal power trip but that clearly wasn't happening.

She just scoffed at him and then they were fighting.

Dante won. 

He was actually caught off guard when he did, but that clown really hadn't been kidding when he'd said earlier that Vergil was exhausted. So while the fight was horribly _tough_ and at several moments he thought he was gonna straight up die, he eventually managed to overpower her, knocking her down into the river where her hair quickly became sodden. She didn't move for a long moment, remaining kneeling in the rushing water with one hand on the ground with the other pressed against her gut.

He jabbed at her, fed up at this point, "What's wrong? Is that all you've got? Come on, get up! You can do better than that."

With slow, painful movements Vergil got up to her feet but moments later the whole world shuddered and flexed in a completely unnatural manner.

Vergil looked around, water dripping down her face as she said quietly, "The portal to the human world is closing Dante, because the amulets have been separated."

"Let's finish this Vergil. I have to stop you, even if that means killing you." That last part was said just as soft. Because he couldn't keep letting her do this, no matter how much his heart was aching.

They clashed once again and again, Dante won. He felt no satisfaction over it.

Rebellion caught her straight in the abdomen, ripping it open in a spray of blood and Vergil stumbled before she fell forward on her knees. The Force Edge sank into the ground next to her and he watched as she didn't even both to grab it, instead picking up her amulet from the water which was rapidly staining red.

She clenched the amulet tight in her fist, pressing it against her sternum as she turned to face him, her ripped open gut staining her clothes a dark burgundy before started to back away from him in clumsy movements. "No one can have this Dante. It's mine. It belongs to a child of Sparda."

Again a shudder rocked the world, pieces of the stone surrounding the river shivering and breaking away. The sky was a deep empty black but he could see odd cracks lacing through it as the tremors increased. His attention was entirely on Vergil though and how she was backing up further and further to the lip of the falls and his breath caught when he realized what she intended to do. He leapt forward, only to be halted by Yamato's blade stopping an inch from his throat.

"Leave me and go, if you don't want to trap in the demon world. I'm staying. This place was our father's home," her breathing was laboured and the deep wound in her stomach wasn't healing but her grip on Yamato didn't shake. 

Dropping down a hand, she pressed it against the torn flesh of her gut as she continued, "As I told you before, might controls everything and if I'm not even powerful to defend myself then there's no use for me in the human world, much less defending anyone else. Leave me and go."

With that, she stepped back and fell.

His lunge was an instant too slow and Yamato sliced through his palm in a final farewell and within seconds she had disappeared into the yawning darkness below.

And with that she was gone.

Leaving Hell was like being in a trance- picking up Force Edge and vanishing through the dwindling portal, watching Temen-ni-gru crumble into nothingness as he walked out into an empty dead city.

He did find that human woman, who looked as shitty as he felt, and gave her back the gun while going through the motions of being his usual self. Inside he just felt cold and twitchy, part of him berating himself for letting Vergil go so easily. He shouldn't just knocked her out and dragged her back to the human world by her hair or something. He couldn't even muster up the energy to be embarrassed about crying in front of a stranger but considering the lady's puffy eyes she'd been having that problem too. She didn't even mock him over his lame 'its the rain' excuse, instead just shrugging.

"I see. Maybe somewhere out there even devil may cry when he loses a love one. Don't you think?"

Yeah. If only she knew the half of it.

They spent a fairly bland week of killing all the demons since the ruins of the city was completely infested with them. The woman, who decided to call herself Lady and whatever, Dante's heard worse, stuck around to help root out the countless nests set up. A part of Dante hoped that Vergil would reappear but that was just wishful thinking on his part. It wasn't until the city was largely cleaned up and he went back to his shop- now at least it had a name -that he finally had his meltdown.

First there was all the anger, at knowing Vergil had done all that crap but when that finally passed he just felt tired and lonely. It also left him feeling hurt and rejected, knowing that his twin had chosen to fall to Hell than stay with him. Then again, he'd straight up said he was going to kill her so maybe she wanted to get away from him and live with the demons than stay anywhere near his stupid ass. That was probably how she reasoned it with Vergil logic.

His best coping mechanism was alcohol which wasn't really a good idea but least being drunk most of the time didn't really impede his fighting- sure he got stabbed or slashed or bludgeoned a fair bit more but his devil self becoming fully realized meant he could shrug off most injuries so it didn't really matter. Though puking during fights sucked.

Though Lady was a big help in dragging him from his drunken stupor most of the time, to the point she just started chucking out any bottles she found when she dropped by and berating him for the state of the shop, usually ripping open all the windows while ripping into him before dragging him out on a mission.

She didn't bring up the reason behind the name of _Devil May Cry_ when she saw the new neon sign above his shop, to which he was grateful. Just snapped she could now just charge him as a business as well, because she was ruthlessly like that.

In all Lady ended up being a friend he hadn't anticipated on. He was more than used to being the outcast, a freak in all manner of the word, and never really had friends since he was too violent and too unnatural. Lady however chose to stick around after all that crap with the tower, her presence becoming more and more entrenched the months following after.

Sure it was probably because he owed her shit but she also didn't take any of his, so she ended up becoming a friend. His only one, but still. A friend with loads of guns and a rocket launcher which he could also appreciate it, and it was a novelty to go on demon hunts with a partner who could hold her own. She was a friend which was a novelty in itself- usually it was just him and Vergil but his twin was gone. He didn't really want to think about what he would've done if Lady hadn't been there to drag him out of his wallowing.

Though there had been one horrendously awkward incident on the first year anniversary of Temen-ni-gru where both he and Lady got completely shitfaced and ended up making out on the ratty couch with each other. Lady's petite body felt wrong pressed up against him, his hands grasping at the small of her back for much longer hair even as the scent of gunpowder and polishing oil filled his nostrils. 

The smell was all wrong, her body type was all wrong, even the shape of her lips was wrong. However he was lonely enough he completely ignored common sense, especially when there was a warm, willing body pressed against him. It wasn't until he ended up moaning his twin's name in Lady's mouth while groping her ass did she pull away violently from him, slapping him in the face before she stormed off.

He just lay there on the floor and slept for two days straight.

Dante feebly tried to apologize the next time Lady came by a month later but she'd just cut him off and said to not ever mention it again. He agreed without an argument.

He wasn't too sure how to explain that Vergil was his other half, in all manner of the word, but he could remember the look of disgust she'd levelled at him when she realized what he'd said and so he knew she probably would never understand. It just ended up being another one of those things they didn't bring up.

Fine by him.

However Dante wasn't stupid, he knew full well his relationship with Vergil wasn't conventional and certainly not acceptable by human standards. Usually when humans were raised as siblings that would nullify any interest but with demons it seemed to do the opposite.

He remembered overhearing a conversation between their parents, once back when they'd barely been six. They'd been in the library, the twins tucked up together and Vergil asleep pressed between him and the arm of a couch, a book open on her lap. Dante had been dozing off and on, but had caught patches of the low discussion between Sparda and Eva despite the two being several bookcases away.

"I don't want to get into this again, they're far too young and I want them to have a childhood," Their mother had said tersely.

"I just don't think we should leave this discussion too late." Sparda had argued, "They are unique, Eva. We don't know if they'll lean more human or demon especially when they go through this human 'puberty'. Demonic siblings don't see other as humans do. They're seen as rivals or...Or something more. Complementary genetics, fighting compatibility, familiar strengths and weaknesses- all things demons seek in partners-"

"I said _that's enough._ "

At the time Dante had just off handedly noticed Eva using the 'stern voice' on Sparda before he joined Vergil in her nap but in hindsight Dante had to wonder if that had been Sparda's attempts to pre-emptively warn his human wife that it was very likely that down the line their children would stop viewing each other as siblings and rather as prospective mates.

Just another whole mess of demon instincts.

But either way he didn't blame Lady for her reaction. She'd had a very set view on devils and even after befriending him she still had a very strong bias. His fuck up with her probably validated a lot of things she still thought about him but if she wasn't gonna bring it up then he wasn't gonna push. Dante never once touched Lady again like that after that debacle.

It took some time but eventually he became resigned to the fact Vergil was gone- he'd assumed she'd pop up again, assumed she'd find her way out of Hell and maybe kick his door in to lecture him about the sorry state of his shop but as the years rolled by that seemed less and less likely. The hurt finally began to grow less raw and the dreams began to fade.

There was the added frustration of his devil self being fully awakened. He thought his demon instincts before hand was annoying but he was completely ignorant to how it would really be. If that was how Vergil felt all the time he had no idea how she resisted the urge to kill and devour him when they met back up. The rage that would suddenly grip him made him glad that the demon hunting business was picking up considering how often he was breaking the furniture, walls and windows. He got more vicious and wild in fights and sometimes had to fend off the urge to actually eat the demons he was killing. 

Numerous times he was woke up in the dead of night, his demon lashing out at him with frustrated lust and fury, urging to go out and hunt down his mate. He kept trying to rationalize with that stupid animal part of his brain that she was _gone_ but eventually he gave up and just deal with the sullen burning rut he kept getting shoved into. He ended up burning the bloody sheets as several times he woke up demonified in the closet with his nose buried in those blankets.

Great, so it turned out he was one of those particularly demons that were like foxes- one mate and then die a spinster. He experimented slowly as the years passed- keeping well away from Lady -but figured maybe he could fool around like he'd done before Vergil stomped back into his life since the constant blue balls and frustrated arousal was really pissing him right off. Only to learn that nope, if he tried to go past anything more than a make out then his pissed off devil would rear its head and lash out in a fit that would send him into one. He strayed far away since the risk of him actually killing and eating someone was way too high and great, Vergil also ruined sex for him.

He'd be pissed if he didn't feel so tired. It was just another thing he had to deal with. _Fucking Vergil._

Then Mallet Island happened and he just spiralled all over again.

At first he just wanted to kill Mundus- that asshole ruined his life, destroyed his family, murdered his mother, and the Demon King needed to die for that and Dante was more than willing to help speed that along. Trish ended up being an unexpected ally in the entire mess which, considering how everything else on the island wanted to kill his ass, was appreciated.

When he faced Nelo Angelo Dante didn't even _recognize_ Vergil at all. Why would he? The Angelo wore horribly thick, spiky armour and wielded a great sword with jerky, halting movements- completely unlike Vergil who had been all sophistication and grace. Even when Nelo Angelo took off her helmet in their third and final battle he didn't recognize his twin, not even being able to remember a time when Vergil had short hair, with the tainted and corrupted skin and crimson eyes made him miss the connection even further.

When he finally struck down the knight and the amulet clattered down next to her did he finally understand. Finally understand just what happened to Vergil all those years ago when she chose to fall to Hell than stay with him. That she hadn't returned not because she chose to, but because Mundus found her. Found her and ripped her apart until he turned her into a docile little soldier.

He felt almost zombified for the rest of the fighting on Mallet Island, his rage finally unleashing when confronting Mundus. Now he knew that not only had Mundus murdered his mother, the King of Hell had also murdered his twin- it had just taken her body longer to catch up. Killing Mundus and sending him back to Hell was beyond satisfying but after that flare of elation he just felt numb. Even after defeating Mundus it wouldn't bring back the dead and if it wasn't for Trish he probably would've just stayed on Mallet Island and died along with it.

Trish, at the very least, understood. Due to being a demon she also didn't overly care about the taboos of human society so there was no judgement on her end when she found out about the true nature of the relationship Dante had with his twin. She'd just accepted it and moved on, even commenting at one point she didn't know why humans got so 'fussy' about it. It felt nice to not have something have a knee-jerk disgust reaction to him and his relationship. Or whatever it was now, since Dante just felt like a grieving widow.

There had been a brief horrible moment after Mallet Island where he thought that perhaps Vergil had willingly gone to Mundus to gain more power but a short conversation with Trish cut that short when she explained how Mundus 'created' Angelos. His resulting tantrum caused Trish to completely avoid the city for two months before leaving a note on his desk that if they wanted to talk about that any more she'd just write it in a letter.

Fair enough. Trish was wary for some time after that but didn't hold a grudge and never brought up Vergil again. He brought some new furniture and fixed the walls.

Still, it left him feeling nauseated to know how Vergil had been pulled apart piece by piece by the same demon that killed their mother, that the demon king had to of violated her memories to get such a crystal clear image of Eva in order to create Trish. At how even after enduring all that torture and being broken, Vergil had let him go when she defeated him in their first fight on Mallet Island. Perhaps it was the shock of seeing the amulet, or perhaps she resisted her conditioning to fight off the orders to drag him to Mundus to get crushed down like she was. 

It made him wish he could go back to Mallet Island and kill Mundus all over again. Stupid disgusting horrible demonic feathery bastard.

Lady let him wallow for nearly six months before she intervened. Like before, Vergil wasn't spoke of but she refused to let himself drink himself to death and even roped Trish in to help- once the demoness and devil hunter stopped circling each other like strange cats they got along like a house on fire. Consideration didn't come naturally to Trish but she followed Lady's lead with that and Dante found himself getting literally dragged out to jobs, usually with one while the other ransacked the shop for alcohol stashes. He always thought closure was supposed to help but guessed being the one to actively kill the person they were mourning didn't really provide the correct kind of closure.

Eventually he had to reason with himself, not that he didn't know but rather that from what Trish explained Vergil had been essentially a dead woman walking. The corruption from Mundus had eaten away at every part of her but her body just hadn't caught up. A mercy kill, of sorts. He could still remember the horrid stench of ichor and decay that had clung to the knight, made so much worse when she removed her helmet. Mundus' influence had essentially rotted her from the inside out. It was the only way he could really deal with it. 

Some days were easier than most and naturally his dreams were unforgiving after Mallet Island. Great human side at work really, usually giving him dreams either around him killing her or going back to that night of wild passion years ago. He couldn't decided which was worse and he wasn't much use those days. The babes tolerated it as much as they could and Mallet Island's anniversary became another 'leave Dante alone with his problems' day.

It was eventually something he just had to endure, like pretty much everything else. Just slap a smile on, which he could do quite naturally at this point. 

Time passed like everything else, a few exciting jobs here and there. Saving some little girl, killing another demon king, trying to avoid giving any life advice- honestly he never got that last part, he was probably one of the worst people to ask such a thing and wasn't sure why people thought otherwise. 

Then there was some drama over a cult overseas, Lady reporting that they apparently worshipped Dante's old man and that the whole island was up to no good.

Fortuna was a rather hilarious incident, all things considered. The irony of Sparda's son killing a cult worshipping the Dark Knight was entertaining and the world wouldn't miss a bunch of religious nuts. Win-win really.

Getting attacked by the furious white-haired teenager right after caught him entirely by surprise though and he ended up with a sword in the gut after a fairly fun brawl with the kid. Nothing new but certainly interesting and he could just tell by the way his blood burned around that white-haired kid that he was related, that he was of Sparda's blood. At first he thought maybe the kid belonged to a distant bloodline or something- considering Sparda's age that wouldn't be too surprising. But as things progressed another theory whispered in his mind, just how his devil was pressing against his senses and the familiar blue energy to the kid's demon arm.

He couldn't resisting popping in from time to time to the needle the kid and generally acting out of sorts in a giddy, obnoxious mess while rampaging throughout the island. It was bad enough Trish actually pulled him aside at one point to ask him if he was drunk, high or a combination of both. Then Yamato was healed by the kid and the katana's easy acceptance of him cemented Dante's theories that the kid was Vergil's so he felt justified in being completely blind sided. 

So what, he was reeling from the fact that Vergil had a son. It was rather hilarious to realize that _Dante_ ended up being the responsible twin out of the two of them. Vergil really lost that high ground, what with the whole demon tower thing and being a teenage mother. 

But he had a nephew, he still actually had _family_ now and despite the island going completely nuts he wasn't bothered about that due to the euphoria of that revelation. Even when a gigantic statue showed up to destroy more crap it didn't phase him overly and it also got put down along with most of the demonified worshippers. At the end of it there was a fairly amount of the island destroyed but the cult and their stupidity had been dealt with and he ended up with a nephew.

He let Nero keep Yamato.

Probably a stupid thing to do, considering he didn't know if the kid would end up going stir crazy down the line, and another part of him wanted to desperately cling to the only remains he had of his twin. Especially when Nero so easily offered it back to him, clearly having no idea how dangerous the katana was.

However he could remember the silent accusation and rage emanating from the blade the entire time he wielded her to destroy the Hell Gate and knew Yamato wouldn't forgive him for killing Vergil.

Dante had enough dealing with his own personal grief and guilt, and didn't want to add Yamato's sullen fury to it. So he gave her up without a fight.

Trish only questioned him once over his decision before she immediately let it go. Lady wasn't so easily swayed but then again she also kept making very pointed comments and jabs about his refusal to discuss the very obvious familiar connection he had to Nero in the aftermath of the Fortuna incident as well. Something that amped up drastically when Nero began tentatively creeping around _Devil May Cry_ in the following months.

How would he even start to explain it? Inform Nero that he was his uncle and oh yeah, that he was still in love with Vergil, his twin _and_ Nero's mother? And that Dante had murdered her after she got turned into a brainwashed slave by the same demon that killed their mother? Nero didn't deserve to have all that crap dumped on him and if he wasn't going to ask then Dante wasn't going to talk about it. Trish stayed completely out of it, reasoning it was solely a family affair, but he knew Lady disapproved of his decision.

Once Fortuna was done and dusted Dante did end up comparing the timeline with Nero's age- the kid had to be conceived when Vergil was around eighteen, give or take. Of course that depended on if she had a traditional human pregnancy, what with them being part demon left that up in the air and his twin wasn't around to question. But still, it left him bitter and jealous that Vergil had given herself to another man. He tried to reason that he had no right to feel that way- he fooled around with other women before her, so he couldn't get bitchy because Vergil didn't keep herself a virgin for him. Or after, whatever. The cult records on Nero's specific age were a bit iffy so it could be before or after they were briefly reunited.

He kept telling himself that he had no right to be hurt, that they certainly didn't 'talk' about their relationship. Dante hadn't had sex or a real relationship afterwards but that just due to both his hang ups with her and his devil refusing everyone else. He had no idea if Vergil viewed him the same. Even their general murderous intentions to each other was just usual demon stuff.

Still, the revelation Vergil had a son was interesting especially with him being raised an orphan. Vergil wasn't one to give up and he found it odd that she'd left him. True, Fortuna would be the place what with being a cult that worshipped Sparda but Vergil had always been stubborn and bullheaded. That she just dumped her kid and left just didn't sit right in Dante's head and it did make him think back to Vergil's rantings back on Temen-ni-gru. About her lecturing him on not accepting Sparda's power, their birthright, on how might controls everything and that without strength someone couldn't protect anything. Was she indirectly talking about Nero? Was she just using Temen-ni-gru to gain that type of power and had intended to go back to Nero when she succeeded? He'd mocked her later on when they'd been in Hell, asking her what she even wanted to do with that power and how she'd never be like Sparda.

No wonder she'd looked as if he'd slapped her when he'd said that last part. Sparda had vanished shortly before Eva had died and their childhood ruined, and in hindsight Dante was mocking her for being the same- a vanishing parent who wouldn't be there to protect her son. At least Sparda had stuck around for years before he disappeared. Vergil never had that. That he'd defeated her in their final fight probably just cemented the fact she didn't have the strength, the power she was obsessed with. That maybe somewhere in her mind that justified falling off Temen-ni-gru and staying in Hell. Perhaps she'd rationalized she'd grow strong there, living through all the fighting and violence, but instead Mundus found her. She'd said as much, that was she was too weak to protect anyone when she couldn't protect herself.

Maybe she _had_ intended to come back when she felt strong enough but the king of Hell stopped that. Because Dante had softened her up for him.

It was an upsetting realization and he cursed himself again for being so stupid back then- about how stupid both of them had been. The whole stupid tower and them just being angry and fighting rather than talking. Though truthfully Dante had no idea how he would've reacted if Vergil told him about Nero back during the Temen-ni-gru debacle. Probably accuse her of lying or something.

But he couldn't do shit about that anymore, besides sit and brood and feel terrible and he'd done that for years so he'd basically gotten it down to a fine art. So he just added that to his list of regrets.

Still, he tried to be friendly towards Nero who was an unexpected nephew and for all the kid's foul mouthed and hot blooded tendencies he was kind, which really wasn't something Dante expected from Vergil's son. Sure, Nero's had Vergil's ill temper at times but hadn't inherited her more murderous tendencies. Even as a kid Vergil was fairly surly and a good hater but Nero wasn't. He was also a raging nerd like his mother which was rather hilarious to discover.

Sometimes, however, he couldn't get enough of a handle on his jealously and would get snippy enough towards Nero that one of the babes would intervene to tell him to piss off, which he'd do without protest. It wasn't Nero's fault at all that his mother hadn't been 'exclusive', especially considering they only spent a night together. Dante had no right to get bitchy over it but sometimes the bitterness would get too much.

Besides those occasionally asshole episodes though Dante found himself liking Nero. The kid was remarkably well adjusted for growing up in a cult which worshipped his grandfather and even his girlfriend was overly nice to the point Dante felt nervous around her. Which was ridiculous because Kyrie wasn't any type of threat at all, but he felt intensely pressured to 'be normal' around her despite the fact Kyrie didn't care at all about Nero's obviously inhuman limb, with her easy acceptance of Nero's devil nature and Dante doubted she judged him over that as well.

Inwardly he just guessed that Eva's tendencies had finally appeared in the gene pool, since both him and Vergil kinda sucked in that department- one more than the other but Dante knew he'd done some fucked up things over the years and was rather glad that for all Nero was a cult kid he wasn't messed up as a person. Especially as he got older and soothed out of his bratty punk stage but Dante had been a lot worse at his age so he never took it personally.

There had been several times when he'd though Nero could broach the issue of their blood relation as the years passed but he'd always back off. Dante didn't press him at all, that still not really being a topic he wanted to talk about and if the kid didn't want to know that badly then Dante wasn't going to bother him over it.

Of course they couldn't have nice things so when he got a fairly hysterical phone call from Kyrie about how someone had torn Nero's Devil Bringer right off, stolen Yamato and left Nero passed out in a pool of his own blood he knew things would get a lot worse before it got better.

At least Nero hadn't died but the shock put him into a coma and Dante was left with awkwardly trying to comfort a crying Kyrie over the phone that it was probably just a defence mechanism, he'll be fine when his body recuperates the demonic energy he lost.

Even prowling around the garage where the deed took place didn't reveal anything, as Nero had bled enough that had swallowed most of the other scents. However there was a disturbing, incredibly faint, rotten aroma that he wasn't sure about and it left him puzzled.

However the main thing that stuck out at him was how easily Yamato let herself be taken- the katana wasn't easily swayed and the knowledge that she'd instantly left Nero for this invader was troubling. With the kid still in a coma, however, Dante couldn't question him about the mysterious stranger so he was just left with wild speculations bouncing around his skull. 

The whole situation was strange, especially since Nero had been so blind sided by the intruder. Sure, the kid was young but he was tough and the fact someone had walked right up to him and just tore his limb right off without too much trouble was odd. The combination left him on edge and he kept wondering as to how Yamato would appear- because she would, and last time she did it resulted in Dante finding a nephew and a demonic statute the size of a skyscraper blowing up a city.

So of course that should've been all the warning signs he needed to know that V was entirely not what she seemed.


	3. Family Reunion

Sure, Dante noticed that V was _odd_ the first time they met but just figured she was some kind of witch or even a homunculus from the way his devil was pressing against his senses. Her weak physical state was obvious, even without her leaning on her cane as he could see the concave of her abdomen through her vest even if the pale skin was covered the in swirling tattoos of her summons. Thin to the point of gauntness but he could taste the magic within her and inked over her pale skin.

She was wearing enough lace and leather it made him wonder if she took fashion advice from Trish, with bangles wrapped around her bony wrists and a small fang necklace encircling her throat.

He watched her with disjointed interest as she spoke to him, voice calm and even despite the way her body looked as if a stiff breeze would knock it over. Strange, certainly, but in his job a lot of people he met were weirdos anyway so he wasn't going to judge. However she seemed intent on pushing his buttons right off the bat, barely hesitating to start cajoling him the moment Morrison was out the door. He barely paid her attention as she rambled, used to clients yapping on about how their demon was the most evil and most powerful and yarda yarda yarda.

But then she spoke, words almost vindictive as she said, "This demon is your reason for fighting."

He scoffed at her, "Yeah sure. This demon have a name?"

"Vergil."

And everything _stopped._

He could see Vergil in his minds eye as easily as the last time he met her- not that corrupted, dying thing Mundus had turned into but his fierce sister facing him in the downpour upon the top of Temen-ni-gru. His body flushed hot and cold even as his devil surged within his brain, sharpening his teeth and nails as he struggled to keep up a veil of civility.

Still, he couldn't help the flash of crimson eyes as he snarled at V, telling her in blunt terms that she didn't need to make up crap in order to stir him into a fight. Because he knew he killed Vergil years ago and now this ratty half starved woman had limped into his shop was acting as if she could just throw that name in his face just to motivate him. When Dante focused on her V didn't even look contrite- if anything she looked _eager_ at having provoked such a strong reaction from him.

He moved from his chair and stalked over to V before he really registered what he was doing, a hand grabbing onto the door frame next to V's head as he pressed her back against the wall, fangs bared and pupils slit as he glared down at her. She leaned back, holding her cane in a vice grip but wasn't trying to push him away. 

He leaned down, hissing right in her face, "Lie if you want to. I'll kill that demon regardless. But you've got to pick better names for stories you come up with, _you know?_ "

V just stared at him, plump lips parted slightly and unruly dark hair tumbling around her flushed face but made no effort to escape. Dante growled, fingers tightening on the door frame until it began to creak as he inhaled sharply.

It was only then he realized that V was genuinely, completely, unafraid of him.

He could see the sweat dotting her pale skin, at how her pupils were constricted to the size of pinheads within her green iris but a single whiff let him know she wasn't scared at all. She was wary, ready to react to an anticipated fight, but she wasn't afraid.

That was strange enough he actually froze; for all Trish and Lady tried to wave it off the two never forgot what he was or what he was capable of. There were times over the years where something would happen or they'd say something that would set him off- usually if they brought up Vergil, which quickly turned into a taboo topic -and they hadn't be able to hide their fear, the flash of terror induced sweat and twitchy movements to weapons in preparations to defend themselves. He never actually harmed them but there was a few times when he'd bristle or snap and they'd be reminded he was a predator and, if it came down to it, he could kill them and there would be nothing they could do to stop it.

He hated it whenever it happened but neither of them ever held it against him as he never lost control to actually step over that line. But still, he hated it knowing that even to two of the people he was closest to they never lost that edge of wariness. Of knowing what he really was.

Nero was much the same but at least the kid didn't seem to pick up on it too much or even realize he was doing it. He just thought it was demonic posturing and Dante wasn't inclined to correct him. The fact Nero hadn't prodded at any sensitive issues helped.

But V...she was a complete stranger to him and he'd just bulldozed into her personal space with fangs and glowing crimson eyes and she hadn't flinched at all. Even now she was pressed against the wall with him looming over her and she hadn't even blinked, just remained staring at him with those big green eyes. Her sweat was thick and sweet but there was no fear. Just anticipation and eagerness. As if she was pleased. But there was no fright or panic, unlike every other human when confronted with his other nature. She just stared.

He got the strong, intense urge to seize her then, to bite into the slender flesh of her exposed throat where he could see her pulse throbbing. To shove her up against the wall, rip the clothes right off her bony body and take her until she couldn't see straight, until her pale skin was littered with bites and bruises to match her tattoos. A muscular thigh shoved itself between V's legs, pressing hard against the leather crotch of her pants as she gasped, her back arching as her head knocked back against the wall. He was about to lean down, to fit his jaws around her throat to hold her in place when his brain caught up with his actions and he jerked backwards.

Dante quickly forced himself back to his desk, ignoring the way V slumped against the wall with trembling legs and a flushed face. He couldn't bring himself to look at her, instead glaring at his desk as he struggled to control himself. Sharp nails dug into the palm of his hands as he exhaled sharply through his mouth, teeth still pointed and blood too hot.

"I'll...I'll come back tomorrow with further information," V eventually said, her voice husky. With shaky movements she hobbled out of the shop, her cane clicking on the ground before she shut the door behind her.

The Demon Hunter didn't move, even as she slowly vanished from his senses and he continued to just breathe while staring at nothing. He could taste bile in his mouth as he realized he'd come perilously close to raping V, close to fucking her right against the wall whether or not she'd actually wanted it. Even now his cock was still painfully hard in his pants, making sitting down rather uncomfortable but he steadfastly ignored it. His demon was encouraging him to chase her outside, to drag her back into his lair and ravish her. To rip the leather from her frail form, to get his fangs into her nape to push her onto the ground and mount her. He could still easily recall the exposed sides of her small breasts through the front of her vest, of the swirling tattoos that clung to the pale skin and wondered how far the designs actually went. Those plump wet lips flashed in his mind, thinking about how they'd feel stretched around his cock-

With a groan he leaned backwards on his chair, running a hand through his hair. V was a human and it'd been so long that he'd felt such strong, visceral attraction to someone that it'd caught him entirely off guard. She was a _human_ and further more his client. Over years he'd certainly been proposition by clients but he'd never taken up the offers. Now his demon was boiling underneath his skin and he had a feeling that this was going to be a completely horrible job, whether of not V was telling the truth about the demon she wanted him to hunt.

He still didn't really believe her, that this mystery demon was a remnant of Vergil, but that would have to take a back-seat to the more pressing issue of not mauling his client before the mission actually started. Another part of his mind pointed out this demon being Vergil _did_ answer the question of why Yamato left so quickly with the newcomer and he just buried that in the back of his mind. Main focus was to deal with the feral tree and to not attack his client in the meanwhile.

So after that he stayed away from V as much as he was able, not in the mood to deal with her when his demonic nature was so volatile around the strange human. When she came back the following day he let Morrison take the lead, even more so when Trish and Lady appeared. Apparently that gigantic murder tree was intense enough he needed all the back up available, especially with Nero still out of it. With the extra three he was able to largely ignore the allure he felt towards V even if it kept flashing through his mind at inappropriate times. Trish at least picked up on that somewhat and began to subtly position herself between him and V whenever they were together, something he was pathetically grateful for. 

Because of that he was eager to get the mission over and done with, even moreso when 'Vergil' was apparently not even using that name and instead was choosing to go by Urizen. He didn't like that, even as they made their way up the twisting roots of the flourishing Qliphoth, since it just reminded him how Mundus had erased Vergil's name to make her Nelo Angelo. Vergil had always proudly wore her name, whereas Dante chose to hide as another identity Vergil had refused. It had taken the Prince of Darkness to strip it from her and the idea that 'Urizen' was disjointed enough from her original self that she voluntarily chose a new name troubled him.

V tried to talk to him as they walked through the roots of the tree but he just brushed her off or insulted her, not in the mood to deal with the strange attractive witch who was trying to emotionally manipulate him into murdering his twin again. That and his demon just kept on going haywire if he got too close to her so he did his best to shove her to the back of his mind and eventually V got fed up enough with it all she left the Qliphoth which good riddance. Lady and Trish kept giving him sharp looks but neither broached the issue, instead just bantering with one another about who'd get to take down Urizen as they darted off ahead in playful moods. After all, they didn't know of the demon's potential real identity. Dante wondered if it would even matter.

They steadily carved their way through the demons infesting the demonic tree, Trish and Lady skipping off ahead and leaving Dante to pick off the stragglers. So maybe he was dragging it out, whatever, but he could feel the pulsating power of the beast lurking at the heart of the tree. It was strange and unnatural but there was a taste he was intimately familiar with. Of the remains of his twin and a part of him wasn't eager to meet her but all too soon he found himself just outside the central chamber, the reek of blood thick in his nose.

At the heart of the Qliphoth was Urizen herself, Dante easily sensing her twisted aura he found threw open the doors just in time to see Lady and Trish get hurled off to the side.

He could actually think Urizen was a remnant of Vergil despite the complete lack of physical resemblance. The fact she didn't even bother getting up from her throne when he burst in was a fairly 'You're totally beneath my acknowledgement' stint Vergil would be totally capable of doing. It looked as if she was about to fall asleep when he stalked up towards her, approaching the gory throne and the thick pool of blood surrounding it. Dozens of fleshy tendrils were wrapped around her body as she watched him with four glittering eyes, chin propped up with a fist. She didn't even bother to move, instead just eyeing him as he approached as if he was some kind of interesting bug she'd found.

As always, Dante couldn't help but tease, "Well, well, O queen of stench and filth. I'm impressed!" his smile was all teeth as he gestured towards Lady and Trish who were struggling to move, "Those are two of the most badass women in the world. And I know of only one other woman who can defeat 'em." His smile dropped as he stood in place, expression growing cold as he stared at Urizen. At this point, he'd had to treat her like Nelo Angelo- a shade of the person she used to be even as his blood began to burn in anticipation as he hissed, low and vicious, "Jackpot."

Urizen stirred at that, shifting up in her throne as her eyes shimmered within the tangled vines encasing her face. For a long moment she just stared at him before she spoke a single word in a deep, echoing voice.

"Dante."

The following fight was short and vicious. Urizen was horribly, ridiculously strong to the point she didn't even bother to get up. She just kicked his ass sitting down, occasionally waving a hand to hurl a massive ball of whirling fire at him or to smack him aside, her magic swirling around her like a storm before eventually smashing him down with so much power it nearly knocked him out and made his brain rattle.

Then Nero had to show up, apparently having been dragged to the fight by V and Dante wanted to cuss the two idiots out because what the hell was the kid even doing there what with being down an arm and all. The fight was volatile but Urizen won that one as well, the resulting exploding of crystals and fire knocking Nero right into the wall and jarring Dante from his semi-unconscious state.

When it came down to it he still couldn't let Vergil kill her own son- ripping off his arm was bad enough but outright murdering him was something Dante wasn't going to let happen. Even in her heavily mutated, altered state. At least V had enough sense to drag Nero off despite the kid's protests as Dante held off Urizen in his devil form, close enough to Urizen he could see the slit pupils in her glowing eyes.

However he wasn't able to hold her off indefinitely and with a shimmering pulse of power she punched Rebellion and shattered the sword's blade, leaving the hilt and a useless chunk of metal as she threw it and Dante away from her in a nonchalant gesture.

It felt as if something had broken inside his chest with the death of the sword and he distantly wondered if this was how Vergil had felt when Yamato had been broken all those years ago. Then thick bloodied tendrils began to encase his body as Urizen's voice echoed through the area, Dante not even registering what she said as the tentacles tightened around his body even as one began to penetrate his sternum with agonizing slowness.

Trish saved his ass then, hurling over the Sparda sword with a shout. The moment he seized it his body flooded hot with power, slicing aside the tendrils as his skin was replaced with scales and spikes. His eyes flared crimsons as he bared his fangs up at the towering demon, who didn't even have the decency to blink. Instead she just continued to look bored, even as he spread his wings and launched himself back at her again.

Urizen just punched him again, this time striking him so hard she smacked him right up through the wall and sent him plummeting down the side of the Qliphoth and off into the dark tangled roots below.

_Goddamnit._

* * *

Dante woke up just as the Sparda Sword slammed into the ground an inch from his head.

V stared down at him, a smile crossing her face before she lurched backwards to fall heavily onto her backside.

Feeling weirdly rested, Dante sat with a groan. Having lost consciousness from the ass kicking Urizen had given him and the fall down the Qliphoth he really didn't know where the hell he was. At least V was alive so hopefully everyone else was alive too since the last thing he remembered was everyone getting a beating.

"For a second I thought you were gonna shish kabob me," Dante said lightly. Getting that sword through the head would've hurt, even with V's skinny arms.

"I know how stubborn you can be," V replied softly, "I thought it might be the only way to wake you."

Dante scratched at his head, frowning at how longer his hair was, before asking, "What day is it?"

"The fifteenth of June."

"A month?" Wow okay. "No wonder I'm so stiff."

With a few grimaces he stood up, rolling his shoulders and feeling the joints pop. The smell of blood was thick in his nostrils and he noticed the old tombstones lying around even as Griffon swooped around him, the devil bird's grating voice mocking him. He would've ignored it if the idiot bird hadn't brought up Nero and how the dumbass punk was gonna try kicking Urizen's ass again. So he grabbed Griffon by his fat little throat before hurling him aside to face V.

"Hey, this is my gig," he snapped at her from where V was still sitting on the ground, "Leave Nero out of it."

V could barely get to her feet, skin ashy and green eyes burning as she told him in a faintly accusing voice, "If you could defeat Urizen I never would have dream of using the child."

Her shuffle to pluck her cane from the ground was so wobbly he half expected her to fall over, V's thick black hair obscuring her face as she continued with, "But Urizen is much stronger than we could have ever imagined."

Dante could hear the beat of her heart, at how weak it was. Her limbs were trembling like a newborn foal even as she leaned heavily on her cane. Griffon glided over to hover near her back, giving Dante a dirty look but he noticed the bird kept V between him and Dante. He stepped forward, ignoring the way Griffon bristled as V continued to stare at him. There was something glittering and haunted in her eyes, something so familiar but he couldn't figure out why. She didn't react even when he put a hand on her shoulder, feeling the bone through the leather as he bent down to sniff at her.

As before his devil heaved within his skin, a burning lust and covetous feeling that was so foreign to him after years of absence. V just continued to stare, tiny cracks lining her full lips. Her blink was slow.

"What are you?" Dante asked, voice hoarse.

V's smile was oddly nostalgic, "I am just a pilgrim reaching the end of her journey."

He shoved himself away from her before he did something he'd regret, changing the subject with a brisk, "Alright enough is enough." He grabbed a hold of the Sparda Sword's hilt, yanking the fanged weapon from the ground while saying, "Can't send a boy to do a man's job."

Both V and Griffon scoffed behind him but he ignored it. Maybe he was overly fond of Nero or even dare-he-say protective but he was going to stand by his earlier promise of not letting Vergil murder her son. He had no idea if Urizen remembered she had a kid but Dante wasn't going to hang around in a cemetery waiting for something to happen. So he hefted his father's sword and moved on. Even when V stumbled and fell over while trying to follow him he barely hesitated, noting the way Griffon sucked himself back into her skin as V remained kneeling on the churned ground while clutching at her bony wrist. Something in him wanted to go to her but he pushed it aside. Instead leaving her with a curt comment to get some rest before moving on.

He found Trish soon after, folded up like a battery inside a demon. Which at least answered the question of what had happened to her and Lady after Urizen beat them all senseless. There was some dithering since Trish seemed fine, if not slimy and unconscious but then Shadow trotted past with a blanket in her mouth and V gave him a dirty look when she hobbled past him. Yeah okay, he'll let her baby sit while he dealt with the tree. Damn thing seemed to get bigger every time he saw it.

Fighting through the demons still infesting the city began to lead him down some horribly familiar roads and streets until he was at the boundary a very familiar mansion. Crumbled from a fire and then years at the elements, he stepped over the broken fence to walk up the stone path.

There was no need to use the front door to his childhood home, massive parts of the wall missing and crumbling so he just stepped through the nearest. It was in the living room and there was the old family portrait of the four of them. 

He and Vergil looked so little, both with bright, childish smiles on their faces.

Vergil hadn't smiled, not when they'd reunited after a decade of being apart. He didn't even know how his own twin looked happy as an adult.

A part of him wanting to snarl when Griffon's screech of "There you are!" cut through his thoughts, though at the same time he was grateful for it. He really didn't have time for a breakdown. After facing Urizen it was apparent that beast was just a shade of Vergil. Just all her hunger and viciousness and that was it. He needed to stop her before more people ended up dead. Even if the Qliphoth had done a fairy good job of cleaning out the city.

As he stared at the water damaged portrait an idea began to form in his mind. It was a long shot but Dante always loved those kind of plans so he summoned forth Rebellion's broken hilt. A part of him was still in pain, a deep wounded ache from the blade being broken.

"I always wondered, why did my father give me Rebellion?" Dante mused, looking at the burnt image of Sparda. When Sparda had given them the swords, he'd let them 'chose' but he'd clearly handed them both. The same way both he and Vergil instantly felt a connection to their respective blades. Yamato fit with Vergil's personality, the katana happily accepting her and hissing at all else. Rebellion was more quiet, more content, but never once rejected him. When Vergil impaled him with Rebellion it had opened up his devil soul all those years ago...

"Hey, what are you babbling about?" Griffon nearly screeched right in his face but Dante was too in thought to get pissed off.

"I've been stabbed and jabbed by pretty much everything, but who would've guessed..." He waved Rebellion's broken edge, watching the rain drip off it before suddenly impaling himself right in the gut with the jagged edge.

Fire burned through him, just like it had all those decades atop Temen-ni-gru. He was talking, Griffon was talking, but he couldn't even focus beyond the molten agony radiating through his core, which made his skin too hot, too tight even as Rebellion disintegrated in his hands until-

An explosion of fire and power ripped through the air, a beast of burning crimson plates, fangs and horns with no resemblance at all to a human being. Dante wheezed out a breath of scorching air, two sets of wings unfurling from his jagged back.

His senses stretched and he felt Urizen like a pulse, the heady throb of her presence as a heart beat. His wings flexed before he was off, so fast the air was whistling past his horns and the sharp points of chitin plates.

Urizen was still at the heart of the demonic tree, on her feet with the tendrils still thickly wrapped around her body and looming over a beaten Nero. She immediately switched her glare from Nero to Dante, glittering eyes roaming over his fully demonic body with an almost satisfied air. He wasn't stupid enough to draw his attention way from the massive threat before him but he could sense Nero collapsing into unconsciousness before Griffon swooped down, little claws digging into the kid's jacket before pulling him away to safety.

Good. He could go all out then without worry of harming Nero.

Summoning his new sword, the fusion of the Sparda Sword and broken Rebellion, Dante attacked. 

The fight was vicious, Urizen still strong and sturdy even with the boost of absorbing the Sparda. He got gored several times and nearly strangled half a dozen more- honestly if he knew Vergil had been that into strangling he would've asked for some other things during that night decades ago -and once punching him so hard in the back of the head he almost felt like his brain had gotten smacked out. But he won, with just as much skin of his teeth had he'd done so all that time ago. Urizen still didn't fall, however, even as she skidded back on one knee with blood splattering up across her massive frame.

"You still don't get it, do you?" Dante asked, back in his human form but just as smug. His sword leapt into his hand with a shimmer of fiery sparks but before he could strike a final blow on Urizen the whole tree lurched.

"Bah. It is _you_ who doesn't understand. It has begun, dear little brother. The Qliphoth has revealed itself in its entirety."

He had no idea what she was rambling about, even as Urizen reached up to grasp the crimson crystal. It flickered briefly into Yamato's form before she absorbed it, letting out an annoyed huff as she did so, "This inconvenience...matters not."

Without even looking back she turned and walked into the geyser of blood that erupted behind her, Dante barely managing to sprint forward and leap through it and ugh fuck, he'd gotten it all over him and in his mouth and Urizen was gone. _Goddamn cheat._ He spat out a mouthful of blood, grimacing at how he was now soaked to the skin in the gore of the citizens. He couldn't sense Urizen's looming presence so she'd left the area so after some grumbling and kicking of the puddles he reluctantly left the throne room. Hopefully Trish would have an idea of what happened with the tree, since she was used to this crap.

After some travelling down the oddly quiet trunk of the Qliphoth he landed in an impromptu rendezvous point, Lady leaning against the van belonging to Nero's mechanic friend with Trish walking into the chamber with V by her side. V looked even worse, like she was only a few moments from dropping dead but the terse look Trish shot him as she walked by distracted him enough. Dante didn't know what he'd done to get that look.

V sat down, her limbs trembling and breath raspy. Her skin was cracked like porcelain, reinforcing Dante's idea she was a homunculus. Especially as more of her skin flaked off as he watched.

Whatever, he didn't have time for that, instead just marching toward her with a snapped, "Hey, where did the garbage god go? What is Urizen after?"

V's breath was dry and almost a death rattle, voice hoarse as she said, "She's at the top of Qliphoth."

He looked up, only for Trish to correct him, "It's the other way around Dante. This is the lowest level of the Qliphoth's upper echelon."

Dante stifled a groan because fuck, it was going to be like that annoying ass tower all over again. Trish continued speaking, explaining how the Qliphoth was finishing making an immensely powerful fruit. The result of its harvest of an entire human city. Throughout it she kept on giving V significant looks that he had no idea how to interpret. Especially with V looking half dead. Whatever, he just needed to kill Urizen and then call it a day.

Of course that didn't happen in a hurry but meeting Nell's granddaughter wasn't something he'd expected. But he certainly wasn't going to turn down a demonic cowboy hat even if Nico was the only one who appreciated his dancing. Everyone else was ungrateful, clearly.

Though Nero butted in before he could leave, insisting he wanted to come. With wasn't happening under Dante's watch, Nero had no idea the demon who just nearly killed him was his mother and Dante wasn't going to let Nero get killed by Urizen or vice versa. Vergil was his responsibility and he wasn't going to let Nero anywhere near the vicious state she now was.

Nero was just as stubborn as his mother though, and just as argumentative when the mood struck. His earlier insult clearly hadn't left Nero's head even if Dante knew Nero would've died trying to kill Urizen before. The kid didn't care, just all wounded pride and anger which Dante could respect.

So instead he tried to make his voice less intense, more careful as he said, "You don't understand. That isn't what I meant-"

The anger in Nero's face faltered for a moment but he then tensed before V's tired voice cut in with, "Let him go, Dante. Time is a luxury we cannot afford. We must chase after her post-haste."

He looked at V, at how her skin was all but rotting off her, saying in annoyance, "What, you're gonna come too?"

"I have a duty to see this through," she said. There was something completely resigned yet resolute in her eyes, now encircled in black bruising as she stared at him. Dante wasn't sure why she was so insistent on coming but he knew the only way he'd get her to stop would be to knock her out and Nero would probably lose his shit if Dante did that.

But hey, if he was that insistent as was V then her and Nero would team up. He got twin glares but neither stopped him as he flippantly told them it would be for the best. Trish's stare was still burning into the back of his head as he took his leave and seriously, what had Dante done to piss her off this time?

He ignored that as he made his way through the ridiculously huge tree, fighting more demons and even encountering King Cerberus. Killing that giant mutt got him a pretty cool Devil Arm though, which Dante wasn't going to turn his nose up at. Especially as the floor caved in after he killed the massive dog and it turned out he was the first one to get to Urizen. Good, he wanted to deal with her on his own.

When he jumped through the hole he landed in a disturbing familiar place.

It was home.

More specifically, it was their childhood home. The mansion and grounds looking just as it had appeared before that horrible night, in place and whole and surrounded by green. Dante felt something in his chest twist as he looked around the illusion, seeing Urizen stand before the crimson sprout holding the fruit of the Qliphoth. She was just staring at the pulsating fruit, the long tendrils clinging to her drifting in the breeze like vines.

"Vergil." Dante murmured, his eyes fixed on the towering demon.

With a grunt he pushed himself up to his feet, noting how Urizen didn't react to his entrance. He called out to her, joking about the Qliphoth fruit to try and get a response but she didn't acknowledge him at all. Just continued to stare at the fruit. She didn't even make an effort to pluck it from the stem, just carried on with her transfixed staring.

Unsure he approached her, looking around the grounds as he said in a deceptively nonchalant voice, "Yup, this is where it all started. That day mother saved me and...left you behind." He inhaled sharply before snapping up at her, "The thing you don't know is, she tried to save you too. She kept searching and searching until it killed her."

"I have no recollection of this tale, or this place," Urizen said evenly, not even bothering to glance at him, "It's all an illusion, created by this extraordinary fruit. It's power, you see, is all I ever wanted."

With an armoured hand she reached out, long talons curling around the bleeding fruit in an almost tender gesture as she said, "And with this, I will have everything."

Crap, he really should've attacked her when he'd had the chance. As it was, he barely took a step before she crammed the fruit in her mouth with a spray of blood, swallowing it down with a snap of her fangs. Her whole body shuddered even as a deep crack ran through the illusion around them, as if they were inside a dome. The tendrils wrapped around her began to fall, blood oozing down her body as Urizen straightened up.

"No sister, you don't have everything," Dante said, feeling tired, "That last shred of humanity you had? You just lost it."

More flesh fell from Urizen in a gory mess, numerous eyes blinking open over her blue skinned body as she replied, "That is nothing but the pitiful cry of those without strength. Come to me, little brother," her foot steps shook the ground as she approached him, jaw opening to show a mass of fangs, even as her voice became husky, "Let me enlighten you, dear Dante."

For some reason having that horrible phantom of Vergil call him 'dear' hurt him more than her beat down from earlier. It was vexing almost and a part of him wanting to shout at her over it but Urizen was clearly beyond talk as she attacked.

It was like fighting a rabid animal.

The poise from before was completely gone, Urizen going completely _berserk_ for lack of a better word. It was if she'd completely lost her higher reasoning now she'd acquired the Qliphoth fruit. She was still strong, still sturdy, but there was absolutely no finesse in her fighting anymore. It was then Dante knew Vergil was completely gone; true, Urizen was a ghost of his twin and his lover but she'd still had that shade of association, even just in her smugness or controlled violence. Now she was just like some rabid animal and Dante needed to put her down as such. Vergil, for all she'd hurt him, didn't deserve to be left like that no more than she deserved to remain an Angelo.

He won, beating her down and impaling the massive staring eye in the centre of her chest even as she staggered back. Her eyes stared at nothing and the noise she made was a horrible drawn-out sound and when Dante leapt away when she collapsed he tried not to focus on her blood soaking him. She made no effort to move, just rasping about power over and over like a broken record. It was like she'd just became nothing with her goal fulfilled.

Of course he couldn't deal with it in peace, of witnessing her die from his actions again since his dumbass nephew and a half dead V showed up. Nero was half dragging, half carry V at this point and her skin was flaked all over his clothes.

"Just finishing up," Dante said, in a cheerful voice that couldn't be more from the opposite.

"That your sister?" Nero asked in hesitant tones.

"Afraid so," he said, voice not losing any of his ease. From the pitying look Nero gave him he was failing completely at being convincing or maybe that was just Nero's empathy at work. And who the hell told him who Urizen was? V? How did she find out anyway?

V hobbled past them even as Nero said, "So she was behind all this. Your own flesh and blood."

Dante just nodded, a part of him wanting to yell at Nero to shut up. He just smiled and nodded because this was his fault for not telling Nero about all this family shit years ago. Lady would laugh in his face with a smug 'I told you so' if she was around to hear it.

Meanwhile V was at Urizen's feet, obviously not caring Urizen was a wild feral demon and instead mocking her. Urizen actually stirred, hissing out a low _'you'_ towards the half dead woman which took Dante by surprise. So she and Urizen had met before. When?

Still, he had to stop a dumb human from doing dumb things so he tried to wave her off. V actually raised her hand to stop him, her teeth becoming black and cracked like her skin as she rasped, "Oh no, please allow me."

Dante wasn't sure why but let her have it. He would probably have a full on break down if he killed Urizen right then. If V did it he could just do it somewhere private. He also tried not to think to hard about how he'd handed over the deed for his shop to Morrison before setting off after Urizen in earnest.

V slumped against Urizen's side before crawling up onto the prone demon. Urizen did nothing besides hiss at her. V didn't care or maybe she just has terrible survival instincts as she knelt on Urizen's chest to tenderly place a hand on Urizen's jaw. The demon could bite her whole arm off, something which Nero obviously noticed as well by the way he tensed. Instead Urizen continued to stare at the dying woman with all of her burning eyes.

"You lost me and I lost you," V said to Urizen, her voice so tender it made Dante shift uncomfortably, "Yet we are connected by that one feeling."

Something was happening and Dante had no idea what. Nero was also looking wary, gaze darting from V to Urizen as the scene unfolded.

The air changed, becoming charged like a lightning strike was about to hit the area even as V raised her cane, her voice still clear and calm as she recited, "'While thy branches mix with mine and our roots together join.'"

_Shit._

The explosion of blue light was so strong it knocked both him and Nero backwards, both skidding back as the air rushed past them even as a immensely strong demonic presence formed before them. The brilliant burst of light shimmered and faded, a person forming in the midst.

Nero looked utterly confused by what was happening but Dante instantly recognized the icily beautiful woman standing where V and Urizen had been. Her long silvery hair was unbound, flowing down her shoulders all the way to her waist in a thick straight sheet as she turned slowly to face them. Her facial features had changed from when he'd last seen her, bone structure rearranging itself into that of a mature woman than a haunted teenager with the clothing dark and drab compared to the bright blues she used to favour but nonetheless he recognized Vergil immediately.

Dante felt his whole body flush hot and cold, unable to make himself move even as the false environment fully shattered and they were within the Qliphoth. Vergil just stared at him, her eyes briefly flicking over to where Nero was before she focused back on Dante. Their staring content went on for how long, Dante had no idea. Even his brain was completely frozen on the fact Vergil was right there. Not the broken thing she was on Mallet Island, not the rampaging thing she was in the Qliphoth, not the dying woman she was in the shop. But whole.

Then Vergil looked to the side, her unbound hair sliding over her shoulders as she leaned down to pick up the poetry book lying at her feet.

Breaking their stare off jarred Dante into action and he found himself snarling and attacking her before he could even think twice, a confused Nero staying off to the side.

She broke his lunge with Yamato's sheath, knocking him backwards before slamming the end right into his gut and sending him flying. He had the presence of mind to snatch Yamato's sheath, feeling the phantom bite of the katana before he was thrown away while hurling it right back at her. She caught it with Yamato and skidded back just like himself but did not fall. 

Her hair swirled around her, brow furrowed into an annoyed stare before she seemed to disappear in a flash of blue. Dante barely had time to put up his sword before Yamato slashed down upon him, the blade letting out a sharp noise as it struck his.

Vergil held him back with one hand, her eyes glimmering blue as she stared at him. Her smell was the way it used to be, without the rot and corruption, and Dante bared his teeth at her.

"Defeating you like this has no meaning," she said, voice having the same low and slightly thick tone.

He ignored the thrill her voice sent racing up his spine, saying mockingly, "Come on Vergil. Let's do this."

She considered it, eyes roaming over his face then down his body before she said, "Heal, Dante. Regain your strength. Once that is done we shall settle this matter."

Of course she did some fancy trick with her sword then, flicking him off his feet like some dumbass kid before knocking him right past Nero and nearly making him fall on his ass. Turning around she flourished Yamato, making two quick slashes which split the air open into a shimmering rift of a portal.

Dante bristled as she stepped forward but before Vergil went through the portal she looked over her shoulder to stare right at Nero, making him tense before she said softly, "Thank you, Nero."

Then she was gone.

His blood was burning and a part of Dante wanted to scream and throw something. Why did this bullshit always happen to him? He supposed it was namely Vergil's bullshit but Dante was really reaching the end of his rope.

Then Nero tentatively spoke up next to him, "If that's your sister, what happened to V?"

"She returned to herself," Dante said. Well it did explain why he kept wanting to ravage V against the nearest wall. A kinda weird revelation sure but certainly the convoluted crap Vergil would do.

Dante looked around, sniffing and trying not to react at how strong Vergil's scent had been and how his devil burned through his veins. He didn't have the time or patience to babysit Nero and quite curtly told him to go home. Vergil was his responsibility, she'd always had been. Especially since she didn't seemed interested in trying to kill Nero, if her quiet 'thank you' to him meant anything. He sure as shit wasn't going to allow Nero actually get the chance. Vergil never shied away from doing what she felt needed to be done.

Of course Nero had to argue, "Like hell I do! I lost my right arm to her!"

Biting back a snarl Dante kept on walking, "This isn't your fight, I need to stop her and I'm the only one that can do it."

"I'm not going to let you have all the fun, Dante."

He came to a stop, spinning around so abruptly it made Nero start even as Dante got right in his face, "You don't _get it_ okay? Just let me handle it!"

Nero scoffed at him, "What, 'cause I'm dead weight? You can shove that-"

"That's not it!"

"Then what is it then?!"

"Because she's your mother!"

Nero stuttered into silence, caught completely off guard. Dante felt some guilt over not telling Nero years ago but he thought Vergil was dead and it was Nero's decision if he'd wanted to know which he never pressed. Vergil literally coming back from the dead completely threw a spanner into that though and Dante felt tense as Nero absorbed the news.

Dante cleared his throat awkwardly before pushing forward, "I wasn't sure at first, I had a feeling but it wasn't until you got Yamato, how she reacted and accepted you that I knew for sure."

The kid looked completely panicked and borderline shutting down and Dante grimaced. He wasn't sure if it was from knowing both Urizen and V were parts of his mother- and he knew V hung around Nero for some time before they'd managed to actually take down Urizen -or just now knowing who his parent was. He didn't know but he still couldn't let Nero go after her.

"She's your mother," Dante repeated.

Nero looked away from him, one fist clenching at his side.

"Look just...I'll deal with her, alright? I'm always the one stuck cleaning up her messes. I'll take care of it," he gave Nero a pat on the shoulder and it was just all tense muscle so he rather awkwardly left Nero there. It would be for the best if the kid decided to go brood somewhere. He could handle himself.

Because Vergil was his and his alone.

Tracking down Lady and Trish was easy enough, even if the giant demon tree was starting to flex and shift in ways trees shouldn't be doing. The two women were with Nico and her beat up van and they immediately flocked to him when he landed on the ground before them.

"Dante, what's happening?"

"My dumbass sister is back and I need to give her an ass kicking," Dante said as way of explanation, choosing to completely ignore the looks Trish and Lady shot each other.

"Vergil? But she-"

Nico interrupted, throwing him a rocket launcher as easily as one would toss a baseball, saying cheerfully, "Made it for Lady and she paid for it, consider it a rental!"

Lady snarled but Nico just waved her off with a grin even as Dante interrupted with, "Alright we'll deal with that later. In the mean time you three get out of here."

Trish hesitated, looking like she wanted to protest but another tremor rocked the ground and they wisely left with Nico. Dante took off, really not looking forward to climbing the damn tree again. It seemed whenever Vergil decided to pack a fit she made him climb a lot.

He did encounter V's familiars and honestly Dante wanted to punch himself in the face for not putting two and two together when he first saw them. Of course they were spawned of Vergil's nightmares, creatures based upon those of Mallet Island. Dante had just been so deep in denial he hadn't connected it.

When he killed the three it left an odd pit in his stomach, especially as Griffon's dying words were care over Vergil. He didn't know where Shadow, Nightmare and Griffon came from but with them dead it seemed her last connection to her human self was broken. She'd never favoured that side of her heritage, even as a kid. Her demon self Urizen certainly hadn't liked him.

Admittedly as far as places to die the top of the Qliphoth was beautiful. Didn't mean he wasn't going to go without giving Vergil a good punch in the face for all the shit she'd put him through.

Just like with Urizen she didn't even bother to rise when he demanded Yamato back, just retorting that he would have to take it. Only then did she get up and turn to face him, her silvery hair pulled back in a long braid. A part of Dante wanted to laugh, because of course one of the first things Vergil did after coming back from the dead was groom her ridiculously long hair, but another part just bared his teeth at her.

"I had a feeling you'd say that," Dante said flippantly, summoning the Devil Sword Dante to one hand.

Vergil considered him a moment, "How many times have we fought?"

"Hard to say. It's the only memories I have of us since we were kids."

She arched a pale eyebrow, "Is it _really?_ "

He didn't blush but it was a near thing though Vergil clearly noticed his mental misstep as she smiled at him and that wasn't fair, she had dimples now. That was a low blow, he decided. She's the one that left.

"Time to finish this Vergil," Dante said sharply. Because he wouldn't back down from doing what he thought was right and neither would she, "Once and for all."

She didn't reply, instead pulling Yamato from her sheath with a languid movement and then they were fighting.

It was exhilarating, satisfying and heartbreaking all at the same time. Vergil had _always_ been his equal, his rival, and their swords spat sparks as they slashed, parried and riposte one another. His blood burned hot as they sliced and gored each other, blood splattering across the ground as they moved so quickly at times they weren't visible only to clash with a thunderclap of air. But he knew he'd only get this fight once, he couldn't let her destroy everything but at the same time he wouldn't survive killing her a third time. He would kill her but he would die along with her.

Even shifting into his Sin Devil Trigger form barely phased her, Vergil simply activating her own and a black and blue plated demon with a long spiked tail and energy jetting from her horns and arms appeared in her place. They clashed, biting and clawing just as much as they used their swords. Also getting smashed in the head by the spiked mace of her tail really hurt, even with having two sets of horns and armoured plates for skin.

Then they burst apart back in their human forms with his breath was heaving in his chest, pupils dilated and panting. Fuck but she hit just as hard as he remembered. At the very least she looked just as flustered, splotches of colour high on her cheekbones and sweat dotting her brow.

He couldn't resisting with a wheezed, "You cut off your own son's arm for this?"

For a moment Vergil looked confused before her features softened, "Ah yes, Nero. He was so much smaller back then."

Dante didn't really know how to react to that comment so he went back to reliable sarcasm, "Guess you were young once too."

Vergil gave him a look as if he was being particularly stupid even as he continued with, "As much as I'd love to hear that story-" which was a blatant lie but whatever, "-I think it's time we-"

"Ended things," she finished for him, face turning back into a blank mask as she readied Yamato.

Whirling power encased them both and their devil forms faced one another, clawed hands gripping two swords. And then they lunged.

And then Nero dropped between them like a meteor, demonified as well with a ghostly hand seizing the hilts of their weapons before shoving them violently apart. Dante fell right on his ass, exhausted form his fighting with Vergil and when he managed to stumble back to his feet Nero shimmered back into his human form and looking completely pissed off. Great, that matched Dante because he _told_ the damn kid to mind his own business.

Then Nero punched him in the face hard enough to knock him right on his ass (again) and then Nero screamed something at Vergil and got in a full on brawl with his mother.

Dante tried to appreciate it but the kid punched hard enough he was fairly sure his brain had been rattling. Nero was strong and fast but even then he barely won by the skin of his teeth against an exhausted Vergil. Though Dante felt unduly pleased at how Vergil had refrained from taking several killing strike opportunities where she could've decapitated her son. 

At least he now knew for certain Vergil didn't want Nero dead while whole.

At the end Vergil didn't even seem overly mad she lost, just giving a fairly bland, "Interesting."

He laughed from where he was still lying on the ground, "Oh my darling sister, you cut off your own son's arm for power and you still lost."

Nero looked like he was about to punch Dante in the mouth again but then Vergil spoke in an approving tone to him, "You grew up strong."

The kid's rant instantly spluttered into a halt, Nero going bright red at the abrupt compliment from his mother. Dante just started laughing again because ha, at least he's not the only one screwing up lately or getting whip lashed from Vergil.

"Look," Nero said, obviously trying to regain his composure which really didn't work with his flushed face, "The Underworld is taking over and we need to do something before its too late!"

"Hey you lost, you have to do what he says," Dante couldn't help but tease Vergil, especially since she didn't look like she was about to fly into a murderous rage from losing.

"Since when do I do anything anyone says?" She said, sheathing Yamato with a roll of her eyes.

"Yeah that's the problem-"

"Hey!" Nero interrupted, "Got any ideas?"

"The roots are spreading," Vergil said, "They'll continue to interfere if we don't cut them at the source."

Dante tried to keep his voice casual, despite a deep flush of anticipation at how docile Vergil was acting, "That's the smartest thing I've heard you say."

Even then he was hard pressed to keep his excitement stifled because in Hell all those years ago Vergil chose to die than submit. Now she didn't seem interested in gutting Nero and just walked past him without issue. Nero was clearly trying to not stare at her and failing completely. Instead Dante followed after her with a glib comment about settling scores.

Though naturally Nero started complaining, trotting after them with questions like some needy kid but Dante barely noticed over his budding eagerness.

Vergil stopped so suddenly Nero nearly ran into her back, but she didn't even seem to notice as she said, "We need to sever the Qliphoth roots from the Underworld itself. Then we'll seal the portal with the Yamato."

"Hang on," Nero said, face screwing up slightly, "If you do that then you can't come back."

"Why do you think I'm going?" Dante grinned, "Someone's gotta keep an eye on your old lady."

Vergil's glare nearly burned a hole through his skull and judging from the wary look Nero shot her he also noticed it. Rather than stab him however she just gave an annoyed grunt after a moment and turned away, heading towards the lip of the Qliphoth.

"You can't just expect me to stay here while-"

Dante bit back a snarl as he spun around to face Nero, "It's because you're here we can go. Okay? We're trusting you with things on this side."

That and Nero just really didn't know the history between the twins. His demon was bristling but he forced that down, instead just wanting to press for Nero to stay. What happened between him and Vergil was too deep and raw and he didn't want anyone else to witness it. Especially if they really didn't return from Hell, if he couldn't keep her.

"Make haste, Dante," Vergil said quietly behind him.

With a grunt he nodded, turning to follow Vergil as she waited for him, her braid swaying in the wind. Nero really didn't get the hint though and Dante was at the end of his patience with it.

Dante nearly punched Nero in the face when the kid darted up to him with another protest but Vergil grabbing his wrist stopped him. He tensed at feeling her skin against his without anticipation of violence, looking at her incredulously only to falter at how close she was. There was rapidly healing bruises on her face, blood spattered along her pale skin and a cut in her lower lip. Said lips were slightly parted to show her tongue and the edges of sharpened teeth.

Nero said something but Dante couldn't focus, too busy staring at Vergil and how she was right there with him. He couldn't even remember when she touched him without violence. 

Well, that was a lie.

He could but didn't know if he should.

After a long bout of unblinking staring Vergil carefully let go of his wrist. Dante insisted to himself he didn't shy away from her even if Nero looked confused by what had happened.

So he just gave the kid a weak wave before ~~fleeing~~ jumping off the edge of the Qliphoth, transforming partway down and spiralling towards the infected roots and feeling Vergil pursue him moments later.

And then they were in Hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> boy i do wonder what these two will get up to in hell


	4. Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now I remember why I never write multi chapter fics and it's cause I'm so goddamn slow at writing haha

"Score for Dante! I'm one up."

"Where did you learn to count? We're even."

The current plane of Hell seemed almost desolate but Dante could still sense the roiling demonic energy of fellow devils lurking in the area. Truthfully Dante wasn't even sure how much time was passing since there was no day or night cycle. Sleep wasn't really a thing in Hell, the energy seeping underneath their skins and keeping them alert and wild. Most sleeping was regulated to little cat naps and then it was up and fighting again. Sometimes he even forgot what they'd come to Hell in the first place for, his blood burning and skin bloodied and muscles burning.

The Qliphoth had already been severed, a slovenly task due to the horde of demons constantly throwing themselves at the two but after enough hacking they managed to cut down the giant tree for good and, true to her word, Vergil sealed shut the torn open portal between the worlds.

Which could only be done in the hellscape, leaving them both stuck in Hell. Dante hadn't made an attempt to jump back through the portal when Vergil sealed it, despite her mutely waiting for nearly a minute before shutting it. He made his choice but he still wasn't sure of Vergil's. She hadn't driven him away so he stayed close.

It also didn't help that his demon was slowly but steadily losing it, being so close to a fully restored and cooperating mate after decades of being alone and frustrated. Especially when he started tentatively touching her, brushing a hand across her shoulder or playfully hip-checking her after fights and Vergil started reciprocating the touches. She seemed unsure and almost confused when he started doing it and Dante nearly teased her until he remember she'd probably gone over two decades without being touched in a non-violent manner, due to her enslavement and later 'death'.

He was still a bit blurry as to how her dying worked but he wasn't about to bring it up.

So he continued touching her, slinging an arm over her shoulders or elbowing her or leaning against her side in the few gaps of rest. She never protested or lashed out at him when he pressed up against her after their sparring bouts, both filthy and covered in blood and sweat and grime but her scent was near intoxicating. Same with her welcoming behaviour, faint smiles and even returning his teasing in her own way. After all those decades his memories of childhood had blurred and their reunion in their teens had been passionate but fleeting before being separated.

Dante was too wrapped up in the euphoria of having his twin back, his missing half, that the worry of returning to the human world had just faded into background noise. The babes and the kid could live without him, he knew. Hell, the shop would probably get its first deep cleaning if Nero stuck around since the kid had his mother's clean freak trait. They would live, maybe mourn a bit, but if Vergil wasn't going to return to the human world then he wouldn't either. He wouldn't survive a third time losing her, wouldn't survive living alone without her again. He'd done his time and couldn't deal with it anymore. Not after having the elation of her at his side.

Even if Vergil was as filthy as he was, with gore and blood slicked through her braided hair but she didn't seem to care and neither did he. Same with her not stopping him whenever he flicked bits of scale or bone from her silvery tresses, instead just tilting her head to the side to give him easier access with his grooming.

Though Dante tried to keep his touches platonic, despite having the urge to lean in to taste her lips while preening her. Or fending off the compulsion to bite her throat when he pinned her during one of their matches or to lick at one of the many gashes their sparring or fights with other demons would produce.

There was also the weird bestial insistence that she would be open to such advances, his devil taking great focus on the way Vergil wouldn't angle the sharp points of her wings at him or the way she would curl her tail to the side while in devil form. Dante noticed his demon was _very_ fixated on Vergil's tail when she was in her devil form.

He tried to ignore that part of himself, the one that saw Vergil as a lover rather than a sister. He'd fucked things up completely all those years ago when he threw himself at her and a part of him still blamed himself for driving her away. He wasn't about to make such a mistake again.

His demon didn't like that at all but whatever, Dante was used to being sexually frustrated. Vergil at the very least made no mention of it, even if he had no doubt she could smell his pent-up lust whenever his devil lashed out irritably. It was just like after that tower impalement all those decades ago, now after impaling himself with Rebellion it caused a jump in his inner demon's awareness that he'd have to learn to control again. 

Though, as they wandered around hell- Vergil seemed like she had a general idea of where she was going and he was just following along like they'd use to do as kids -the topic of Nero came up. Mostly Dante recounting his first experience with the kid, chattering to fill up the bouts of silence between their fighting with each other and everything else. About all that bullshit that went down in Fortuna.

Until finally he asked the question he'd been dying to know since he knew about Nero, about where Vergil even was. Abrupt, after telling her of him healing Yamato but it just came blurting out with his usual lack of tact.

"So why didn't you stay with him?" Dante couldn't help but ask, almost babbling at that point, "I mean, it's sorta hard for the woman not to know she has a kid. Unless uh..." he trailed off, thinking about the unconventional methods some demons used to reproduce. Considering their hybrid nature...

"I have a fairly traditional pregnancy, if that's what you're pawing at," she said, rolling her eyes. They were on another random plain of Hell, desolate and unnaturally still. Their footsteps were the only noise, walking side by side.

"Great. Suppose that's less awkward than like laying an egg or something." Vergil glared at him and Dante just shrugged. How the hell was he even supposed to know what she'd gone through? Not like she'd spoken to him until they met up a year later. Fending off that thought he said, "Still doesn't explain why you dropped him off at Fortuna. Babies are kinda annoying, yeah, but you're not really one to just give up."

She looked away, expression unreadable as she stared off into the distance. What Dante said was true after all- if Vergil was anything, it was hard-headed and the refusal to back off. The fact she'd just given up Nero was a bit at odds with the rest of her nature, even if babies were high maintenance. Still, Dante didn't press further and just let her mull over her response even if curiosity continued to burned within him.

"He was not safe with me," Vergil finally said.

"Because you were hunted?" he cautiously pressed. Yamato had always been far more desired than Rebellion.

"I suppose I spoke poorly. No, he was not safe from _me._ "

He actually stopped as it took him a few moments to register the words and he gave Vergil a sharp look as she also came to a halt with an unhappy twist to her lips. For all her human hating tendencies he was fairly sure she hadn't killed children before and had no real inclination to. The revelation she wanted to hurt her own baby was disturbing.

Dante tried to joke over the crawling tension, "Lousy at nap time or something, eh?"

The black look Vergil gave him shut him right up. "Hardly. It- I didn't want to give him away but I had no choice. I believed I could control my demonic instincts towards him but...However an incident occurred which made it obvious I would not be able to. Thus he was in danger with my presence in his life. I made the logical decision to avoid having harm come to him."

_Ah._

It wasn't uncommon, for demons to kill their own offspring. Some would go utterly berserk to protect their young with no care for self preservation while others actively hunted their own offspring, would even try to kill them the moment they were born.

And it seemed, unfortunately, Vergil had fallen into the latter category.

A part of him was morbidly curious about the 'incident' but from the look on Vergil's face asking about it wouldn't be well received. Instead he said, "Well. Uh. Do you still wanna kill him now that he's old?"

"No."

"Okay good." _Maybe it was 'cause babies were small and squirmy?_ "Because I don't want to have to deal with potential cannibalism on top of everything else. He's a good kid."

"Then perhaps it was a good thing I wasn't in his life then."

"Oh come on, he's a total nerd like you," Dante couldn't help but tease, "He made those weapons of his and is a clean freak too."

"Considering my main encounter with him was him screaming and cursing while making rude gestures before getting into a fight with me, it appears he takes after his father more," Vergil said, amusement seeping into her voice as her body language relaxed.

And just like that Dante's mood soured to the point he had to stop himself from glaring at her. He stifled down his jealously even if another part of him wanted to know just _who_ the hell Nero's father was. Dante was here with Vergil. Not that unknown man.

Maybe it was better if he never knew. A part of him wondered what would happen if Vergil chose to seek the man out when they returned to the human world and he quickly shoved that to the back of his mind. He wasn't going to screw things up with Vergil by being a jealous idiot even if his devil hissed at the idea of someone else touching his mate.

"Maybe," was all Dante said after a fairly awkward silence and, despite his better judgement and always being a sucker for punishment, couldn't help but ask, "You stuck around for him eh? You sorta don't seem the type to settle." 

Vergil's expression became even more amused, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips which caused her dimples to appear, "He grew on me. Like a fungus."

"Really?" Dante's voice was painfully chipper.

"Indeed. Perhaps I'm still suffering from insanity but I fear I may not be able to stay away this time."

Thankfully they got attacked then, which meant Dante could direct his foul mood towards said demons in ripping them to pieces while mostly in full Sin Devil form. He ignored the way he ended up killing the majority of the devils, most of them via his bare teeth and claws with long shimmering wings fully extended. He felt inordinately pleased at how Vergil spent more time watching him than fighting herself, even if she effortlessly dodged whenever one of them took a swipe at her.

Though shifting back into human form left him with the taste of blood in his mouth and colouring his hands. Vergil flicked gore off Yamato's blade before sheathing the katana, before gliding forward to yank a wayward talon out of his shoulder. He didn't even twitch as she pulled it from the muscle, the wound rapidly healing. Well his coat was fucked anyway from the sheer amount of gore rubbed right in. Ah well. It helped settle his nerves even if he still felt upset over Vergil's words. After all the crap she'd gone through she deserved whatever happiness she could find and he wouldn't stop that.

Though the light touch of her fingers along his jaw stopped him mid turn and he faced her with a confused look. Vergil's expression was odd and it took him several moments to place the expression on her face, but contrite was such a foreign emotion on his twin that he could barely recognize it.

"I should have informed you about him, you deserved to know," she finally said, her hand sliding through the silvery bristle clinging along his chin before cupping his jaw in a gentle grip.

"Look, we were both young and stupid. There was a lot of things we should've done." Dante couldn't fault her for finding comfort in someone else. He'd nearly done so with Lady, after the Temen-ni-gru debacle. He didn't know what she'd gone through beforehand, before meeting up with himself so it would hypocritical for him to judge her.

Besides, she was here now with him not whoever else she'd briefly picked. Another part of his mind pointed out that if they did leave Hell she might try to find whoever he was, considering Nero deserved to know who his father was. Dante just ruthlessly quashed that thought, figuring that he'd just cross that bridge when it happened. Probably with a lot of alcohol involved.

Though his arms ended up winding around Vergil's waist within him realizing it, pulling her closer until her chest was pushing against his. She didn't drop her grip on his face, other hand gently holding onto his shoulder as she leaned against him. The last time he'd hugged her had been decades ago, in their first reunion as teenagers. It felt like a lifetime ago.

He nuzzled at her face, the scraggly growth of his facial hair dragging across her cheek and nose. He breathed in her scent, pressing Vergil closer against him even as her hand slid up into his hair to lightly scratch at his scalp.

It was only when he subconsciously titled his face to kiss her did his brain boot back into gear and he found himself stumbling back before their lips could make contact, nearly tripping over his own feet in his hurry to put space between them. Vergil blinked, looking confused and perhaps curious but not angered at his retreat. The red marks along her jaw from his partially grown beard was already fading.

"Um. Why don't we carry on uh doing whatever we're doing?" Dante said hurriedly, ignoring the way his cheeks were burning.

"As you wish."

His demon wasn't particularly happy with that decision, burning in his gut until he felt on the verge of vomit near constantly, but Dante just did what he did best and slap a smile on. Vergil just looked at him but otherwise didn't press the issue as they carried on.

_Stupid demon._

The topic of Nero, or at least baby Nero, was something he didn't bring up again, especially considering he didn't really know how to respond to the whole thing especially since the lingering issue of Nero's bloodline was there. Vergil would have nothing but contempt for pity and Dante had no desire to drag up old wounds just to pick up a fight. At least, not that kind of fight. Sparring he could deal with but emotional crap? Not really his forte. 

Still, his promise to not approach Vergil was a lover was severely strained as they continued their trek. They fought, against one another and against the hordes of demons that seemed to spring out of nowhere, talked about some baseless things- and Vergil admitting she couldn't even remember her favourite food made Dante wish he could go back to Mallet Island to rip Mundus' head right off -or Dante just chatting about the jobs he'd gotten over the years. Safe topics even if Dante had no idea what Vergil was prowling around Hell looking for. Since she did seem to have an idea but Dante was too much of a coward to outright ask her.

Same way he couldn't muster up the courage to ask her about _them_ even if his demon continued to be completely pissed off at him about it. About how she was right there and how dare he not ravish her? It was annoying, having one part of his mind being angry and it didn't help Vergil was fairly distracting; fully restored she was breathtaking in battle, moving so swiftly she was just a blur of blue before Yamato was slicing through muscle and sinew like a hot knife threw butter. Of how she'd curl her lips in a snarl, uncaring of the blood splattering across her features as she beheaded demons and bisected devils in a shower of gore. Of the way he could see the muscles of her thighs flex through the tight material of her trousers and could so easily remember how they felt clamped around his head or wrapped around his waist.

Right. Well, it was going to be harder than he thought. Wasn't fair that Vergil was so hot and her aggression and ability to keep up with him, to match him in raw strength and speed unlike anyone else, just exacerbated the whole thing.

He'd ruined things once by being a horny idiot and wasn't going to do it again, not with knowing how hollow it was to be without his twin. Even finding that he had a nephew and keeping Nero around only did so much. There was a reason why Dante had given the deed of _Devil May Cry_ to Morrison after finding out just who he'd be confronting in that giant feral tree and it wasn't due to planning to retire early.

Well, he'd kinda been just not in the human sense. Demons retired for one reason only.

Either way Dante wasn't going to approach Vergil like that. Not anymore. He'd driven her away by using her all those years ago, especially when she'd tried to shove him away when he'd kissed her but he'd ignored that and ruined their bond. He wasn't a stupid teenager anymore, long years had beat that out of him.

Of course, his demon didn't give one shit about it and the tension between them reached an impasse in the aftermath of a fight with a pack of Rages.

During the final leg of said fight Dante switched to his Sin Devil form, finding it easier and easier to stay as a demon the more he did it. It was almost annoying how Vergil seemed to have no limit on her devil self but for the fighting she seemed to be more observing him, like someone studying an experiment, as she prowled around the outskirts as he torn apart the scaled demons with more fang and claw than sword.

With the final Rage's decapitated head went rolling along the bloodied ground he flared out his wings, talons tugged free of the limp body which vanished into shimmering sparks and orbs which his scaled body easily absorbed. At least they could nourish themselves on orbs, not actually having to eat the demons. Sure, Dante had eaten a lot of questionable things over the years but demons were pushing it. It'd kinda like eating humans, since he was part one. Not a bridge he was willing to cross in a hurry.

Funnily enough one of the more weird things he was still trying to get used to with his fully realized devil form was having only three toes. He wiggled said toes, the sharp, sickle talons leaving furrows in the ground as he flexed them. The automatic floating was pretty fun, but he was entertaining himself kicking up dirt like a fussy chicken before Vergil seemed to appear out of thin air before him.

"Wait."

Dante twitched, leathery wings flexing uncertainly before pulling away so Vergil could step right up into his personal space. There was some blood on her face and staining her hair but he didn't mind. They were both fairly rank at this point even if it was far less noticeable while they were in their demon forms, with the scales and leathery skin. Though Vergil was all human now, in sharp contrast to him as she moved right up against him.

He was the same height in his devil form as human but his upper horns lent him some false extra height but the armoured plates and glowing chitin gave him a sense of solidity and bulk his human form lacked. A bodily contrast a lot more apparent with Vergil being human before him, nearly pressed up against the plates of his chest. His wings fluttered nervously even as his scorching breath ruffled her silvery hair, hands hovering awkwardly at his side as Vergil studied him intently.

She reached up with a hand, calloused fingertips tracing his armoured jaw as her eyes roamed hungrily over his demonic features. He nearly wanted to shy away, having no illusions about how monstrous he now looked. Even with his previous demon form he has _some_ illusion to humanity but now it was all glowing crimson eyes with no hint of pupil or sclera, dense curved horns glowing with an unholy energy and needle-like teeth within a lipless mouth. However Vergil's features relaxed, making her normally icy vestige achingly soft and warm even as both of her hands cupped his sharp jaw tenderly.

"You were always so beautiful in red."

Dante couldn't blush in this form but damned if he didn't try. As it was he got the bizarre urge to hide his face behind a wing.

"You once lectured me for dismissing my humanity," Vergil said in a slightly scolding tone, still watching him intently, "Yet here you are, shying away from the other integral aspect of your nature. We are a crossroads of each."

He grunted, a bit unsure but nonetheless appreciative even as his large jagged wings unfurled to cup around her. The shimmering symbols glowing upon the thick membranes gave Vergil's pale hair and complexion a ruddy tint. Long sharp talons settled on her back, kneading lightly at the filthy fabric of her coat.

Vergil's fingers trailed over his jaw before following the curve of one of his horns, her other hand side down to rest along the chitin plates of his upper arm. She looked deceptively fragile pressed against his devil self even if her eyes remained calm and assessing. Much like when he'd cornered V, there was no hint of fear towards him. Instead her gaze was admiring towards his inhuman self.

She leaned forward until she could press her forehead against his, uncaring of the numerous small edges and spikes digging into her soft skin. Dante hummed, inhaling her scent and all but purring. The shimmering energy consolidating at his chest seemed to pulsate in time with his heartbeat.

His demon took advantage of his relaxing state, sinking mental talons in deep as he nearly reeled from the intoxication of holding his twin so close. Without him willing it his clawed hands moved up to push off her overcoat, letting the fabric pool on the ground around her feet.

_Wait, stop-_

He ignored that protest from his rapidly buried human self, instead being focused on his pliant, willing mate being within arms reach after decades of loneliness. At how she was here and whole, strong and willing, and he was fed up with being alone. Even among friends he still was, always was out of their league in terms of strength and power and here was his equal, his rival and he was going to take what was being so easily offered. 

Vergil didn't resist, docile in his arms as he kept her caged against him with his wings even as talons undid her vest with finesse until the fabric joined her coat upon the ground.

Dante leaned down, barbed tongue dragged across her now exposed neck with the sharp edges drawing pinpricks of blood that he inhaled messily. Vergil groaned, fingers digging into his leathery skin before he sank his fangs deep into the muscle between her shoulder and neck. 

The spike of arousal in her scent made him growl, the plates of armour at his crotch shifting oddly even as he drank eagerly at her wound. When he pulled away the bite was already healing, though blood had dripped down her front to roll down the exposed upper portion of her breasts. Though her underclothes hadn't changed much, the corset being deep blue with silver accents while laced at the front much like V's had been even if it strained at her cleavage a lot more than V's had ever done. Vergil untied it even as Dante's long talons removed her pants and underclothes until she was bare against him, soft pale skin pressed against dense crimson scales.

There was something almost perverse about touching her while fully demonic and a part of Dante wondered why he wasn't shifting back, while his energy wasn't abating. If anything it was burning brighter, talons dragging down Vergil's strong bare thighs to leave bloodied scratches as he nipped at her neck and shoulders. She shuddered and whined, head tipped back to give his fangs better access as his wings kept her close.

_Mine._

She was pliant as he pushed her to the ground, the sharp points of his wings sinking into the earth as leverage and as a shield while his hands roamed over her body. Claws sinking through skin as they dragged down her full breasts, squeezing at the supple flesh and bloodying her hardened nipples until she was panting harshly against him while her hips bucked against his thigh. Her eyes were squeezed shut, breath coming in short gasps as his barbed tongue swept up the sweaty skin between her breasts before he nipped at one hard enough to draw blood.

There was something intoxicating about manhandling Vergil so easily, at how she was letting him just shove and yank her around without retaliation. Something he'd never get away with in a spar but now she was so open and vulnerable with him, her arms clinging to him and legs spread.

He growled, settling on his knees as he shoved her along the ground so he could lick down her stomach before reaching the apex of her thighs. The thatch of silvery curls were wet and offered no resistance as he lowered his mouth to swipe his long serpentine tongue through the damp hair and briefly dipping into her heat.

The noise she made caused him to growl, a sharp keening that made the plates of his crotch shift more as he felt a weird wet squirming down there that he ignored to focus on eating her.

His lower set of horns perfectly fit as a cage of her thighs, with him briefly pulling away despite her whine to yank her forward so only her shoulders where resting on the ground as he set the backs of her thighs against the curve of his horns with her heels resting upon his back. It also had the added effect of keeping her in place, which considering how much she was squirming was a boon even with his iron grip on her sides.

As it was he wasted no time in getting his tongue back inside her, eagerly drinking in her juices and inhaling the pungent scent of her arousal as he kept a tight hold of his writhing mate. He licked and laved at her until her whines reached a higher pitch and he could feel the wetness drip off the pointed spikes of his chin. Still, he didn't let go of her. Instead he slid his tongue in deeper, feeling the way the walls of her tightened and pulsed around the invading appendage.

Long claws gripped into her sides, the smell of blood tangling with the arousal and lust permeating the air around them. Vergil's thighs were clamped tight around the thick armour of his face, muscles as tense as a bowstring as he continued his ministrations with gusto. Vergil herself looked like a complete wreck, skin shining with sweat as she shuddered and moaned against him. One of her hands was gripping her breast, squeezing the supple flesh so hard her knuckles were white while the other was tangled in her loosened hair.

He didn't even remember why he'd been so wary of doing this, they were made for one another and he'd kill anyone who'd try to get between them.

When she orgasmed again it was hard enough her shoulders actually left the ground as the muscles in her side flexed even as her breasts jutted out obscenely with the movement. He growled against her, giving several more hard licks that left her whining weakly before pulling away. Strings of saliva remained connected to her, before he abruptly pulled her thighs lose from his horns.

Vergil landed hard on the ground, the impact jarring her breasts, but she didn't even seem to notice with her dazed expression and glossy eyes. Dante growled, breath puffing out before he gripped her knees to tug her forward without resistance. Instead she hummed, hands moving to rub at the leathery skin of his wrists as he clenched her sides tight in his grip. She didn't seem to care that his talons were sank right up into the nail bed in her flesh, blood spilling down on ground beneath them.

As he settled onto his knees, long wings flexing around him, he finally caught a glimpse of his transformed and fully unsheathed cock; nearly the same length as his forearm, it was thick and flared at the base before tapering to the tip like some weird tendril. He paused, pulling a hand free of Vergil to drag his bloodied talons down the length of his cock and shuddering at the sensation. The skin of it flexed oddly, dozens of ridges dotting it moving like miniscule cat claws. Probably to keep him locked inside his mate and he hissed out a plume of steam at the thought. The tip of his cock pulsed in response, the pre-cum that oozed forward a bright reddish colour that matched the energy radiating through his chest. 

Vergil's low whine, heady and wanting, snapped him out of his self-exploration and he looked down at the very lewd sight she was, sprawled out in front of him. He could still taste her in his mouth, her eagerness still glistening upon his fangs and chin.

Leaning down he snapped at her face, hands running up her sides as he growled. Her eyes were bright and shining, lips bloodied from where she'd bitten through the skin. More of the crimson was splattered across her naked, sweaty body. All from his claws and teeth with no fight from her despite the power he could see radiating through her limbs. She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, and he wanted every inch of her.

"Mine," he snarled, thick and guttural and voice two toned to match his inhuman visage. His claws tangled in her hair before tightening, dragging her head back until her neck was forced into a bared arc as he repeated the words, scorching breath evaporating the sweat clinging to her skin as he hissed, _"Mine."_

"Yours," Vergil rasped, making no attempt to escape his hold.

With that Dante sank his teeth deep into her throat, blood rushing into his mouth as his needle-like teeth easily bit through her skin and muscle. She shuddered, a strangled groan escaping her even as her fingers clawed at his back. He could kill her like this, increase the pressure until he bit right through her windpipe or crush her throat until she suffocated beneath him.

He wouldn't, not with his mate, but the knowledge that she was letting herself so vulnerable to him was intoxicating and he could feel his inhuman cock flexing eagerly. It was easy to use his wings to support his weight, hands dragging bloodied gouges as he trailed them down her shoulders, over her sweaty breasts, down her sides and muscular thighs before gripping onto her knees to lift her lower body up for his cock to slide into the wet mess between her legs as he kept his jaws tight around her throat.

Her groan seemed equal parts pain and pleasure as he rutted into her, the spikes along his hips ripping open her skin as he shuddered at the sensation of her wet walls clenching around his cock. Blood was hot in his mouth and energy burning through his limbs as he took everything she offered him, bucking into her so hard her breasts were bouncing up and down while sweat and blood rolled down her skin to drip to the ground below.

The sensation of his transformed cock was alien, moving and flexing in a way his human one never had but getting him in deep enough the skin of her abdomen was stretched with his girth. He felt the deep burning in his gut, roiling his hips deeper until he was flush up against her. Vergil's rough fingers were clenched tight upon one of the spikes of his spine, muscles of her arms straining as he felt her throat flex against his teeth with her moans.

She felt so soft against him, skin rubbing against scales and chitin but he didn't slow down on his sharp thrusts. Despite how easily he ripped and bit her skin open he knew she was strong, easily able to take the strong snaps of his hips against hers over and over again as his teeth continued to bite her throat open. Her insides were hot and tight even as he felt the ridges of his cock flare open, keeping him locked flush inside her. The noise Vergil made was almost strangled, a coherent noise of lust as her body arched at the sensation. Dante's hands moved, gripping the small of her back to pull her hard against him and making her nipples drag over the plates of his chest and across the exposed lines crimson energy pulsating through. 

He growled against her, rolling his hips slow and steadily and keeping her filled with his flanged cock. A part of him wanted to see, as he could feel the distended skin of her abdomen pushing against his but his devil refused to loosen its grip upon her throat. It'd been too long since he'd had his mate willing and open underneath him and he wasn't going to let her go until he'd consumed every inch of her.

The shimmering symbols of his wings, still shielding them from the outside world, began to glow in time with his thrusts which began to get more and more sporadic. His claws tore through Vergil's skin even as her fingers clenched at his back, the broken chant of _Dante Dante Dante_ rasped beneath him finally being the thing that sent him over the edge.

One more thrust and he stilled, jaws briefly clenching around Vergil's throat to choke her into silence as he spilled himself deep within her even as a burst of energy escaped his body in a crimson flare that sent the air shimmering.

Vergil's clinging limbs fell away and slowly his teeth slid free of her. Gently he licked at the deep puncture wounds on her neck, tongue laving through the blood as his cock remained locked within her. He fussed over the skin, licking at it until the wound healed back into smooth skin. Then he continued to lick the blood away even as Vergil remained a shivering mess beneath him, sweaty breasts heaving with the force of her panting. Dante purred, a deep rumbling noise that reverberated down to his cock still buried within her and making her sigh.

_Mine._

When the flares on his cock finally settled he was able to pull himself free. The amount of cum that spilled from her, staining the silvery hair red and splattering upon the ground underneath her bloodied thighs, was too arousing to resist and he spent the next several moments eating himself from inside of her. Vergil was so exhausted she couldn't protest, eyes glossy and limbs trembling as he managed to wring another orgasm from her as he licked her clean. By then his cock had retreated back inside of himself- which was rather weird to watch, admittedly -and Dante suddenly reeled back as he abruptly found himself back in his human form.

He gasped, feeling like he'd just broken free of a tub of warm water and arching his back at the raw sensation. He was still settled between Vergil's bare thighs, fully clothed while she was sprawled sweaty and naked before him.

And oh shit, there goes his plans of not stepping over that line. 

He'd deal with that break down later, instead he was a bit worried at how incoherent Vergil was. Sure, he guessed she was overly sensitive in general from the 'coming back from the dead' thing but she barely seemed to notice his presence despite him shaking her shoulder. Dante tugged her upright, with Vergil lolling against him before she started nuzzling at his jaw and that turned into an impromptu make out session with her in his lap. He groaned against her, arms sliding around her waist as they kissed with none of the violence of their coupling before. Her breasts pushed against his chest as her fingers trailed along her shoulders as their tongues laved against one another.

By the time they pulled away Vergil's eyes were alert, somehow looking smug despite her sweaty nakedness. He couldn't help the whine he let out as she climbed out of his lap with a rolling boneless movement, watching as she pulled back on her discarded pants and boots in brisk movements. She'd finished buckling up her pants when her expression became alert, eyes flaring with a bright blue as Dante jumped back to his feet even as demons burst out of hiding around them. He summoned his sword even as Vergil took the time to toss her coat on before unsheathing Yamato in a flash of light.

The fight wasn't difficult but Dante got incredibly distracted watching Vergil fight naked from the waist up except for her coat and got stabbed several times because he was too busy looking at her bare breasts to pay attention to the demons he was supposed to be fighting. Whatever, he'd always been a major fan of boobs and Vergil had the best pair he'd seen. Watching them get sprayed with blood and then Vergil nonchalantly dragging a hand down them and over pert nipples to wipe the dripping crimson away was ridiculously distracting.

And Vergil didn't even seem to notice his interest, just scolding him over being hit so much with they dealt with the newest horde. He just mumbled something under his breath, trying and failing not to stare even as she wipe down her naked chest as best she could before putting back on her corset and tying it up. And he was hard again.

_Fuck._

By the time she'd fit back on her vest and coat he'd managed to get himself largely under control. She did spend some time running her fingers through her hair, nose wrinkling with distaste before braiding her hair back up while Dante lingered around her. She smelled of sex and sweat and blood and himself, just like he reeked of her.

There goes his promise of keeping things platonic but his devil was purring happily in his chest and he couldn't even really remember why he'd protested it in the first place before it came surging through his content mood with the force of a bull. _Shit_ , he was such a dumbass.

Which Vergil didn't miss the abrupt shift in his body language, as when she went to lean against him he shied away. Her eyes narrowed, an odd flicker of green in their depths before she stepped right in front of him. There was a stern set to her lips so he quickly stopped walking, knowing she'd physically stop him- probably with Yamato through the gut -if he tried to ignore her.

"Got something on my face?" he tried to joke.

She didn't rise to the bait, "What is wrong?"

"Nothing!"

That might fool the likes of Lady or Nero but Vergil had never fallen for his smiles. Instead she stepped forward, eyes narrowed as she studied him harshly. He felt as if her gaze was stripping the skin right from his face.

"You are resistant to us despite so blatantly wanting," Vergil finally said, steely gaze not dropping from his where he felt like a rabbit before a snake, "And now you are ashamed. Why? And do not give me the pathetic excuse of human morals."

It was a demand but for all her lofty attitude tact had never been one of Vergil's traits and he found himself answering without really thinking, "I ruined it last time."

"Elaborate."

"You tried to push me away and I didn't let you," he finally admitted. He felt ashamed to say it, out loud, after all those years. Despite how eager she'd just been underneath him, with him inside her, he couldn't forget how it had happened all those decades gone. 

Vergil looked confused before he could see the way her head jerked back slightly and he knew she still remembered it. Back when he kissed her in his shop, back before it had even been named, when she'd tried to shove him away.

"Dante. Dante, look at me," her voice was all but a bark at the end of it even as her hand gripped his chin to force him to look at her.

He probably looked like a guilty mess but Vergil looked angry. Angry enough her eyes were burning with demonic energy and her bared teeth were pointed. Dante wasn't going to stop her from punishing him, from punching him or stabbing him or whatever. Not about this.

What he didn't expect was for Vergil to get a hand on his nape and yank him forward into a bruising kiss. Confused but appreciative, Dante responded to the abrupt, passionate motion. For a few minutes they made out like teenagers, Dante biting slightly at her lower lip before getting both hands on her ass and grinding against her as their tongues laved against one another in a hot open-mouthed mess even as she sighed. When eventually they pulled away both of their lips were shiny from saliva and his cock twitching in his pants. 

"Fool," Vergil finally said, her voice so unbearably _fond_ , "Have you really carried a thought as such for all these years? All these decades?"

"You left," he said miserably, though he didn't drop his hands from her as their foreheads pressed together. He sighed when she started patting his hair, calloused fingers dragging through the filthy silvery locks.

"I left because I was confused," she said flatly, "Someone didn't know what she wanted and feared any type of safety or familiarity and was punished adequately for her rash and self destructive choice. You did not drive me away through your affection. And quite frankly I'm insulted at the idea you manipulated me into something like that- if anyone else had dared to touched me in such a manner I would have killed them where they stood. I also would've killed even you if you had attempted to force me. Do you understand?"

When he didn't immediately nod her hand tightened in his hair, just shy of painful, " _Do you understand."_

"Yes ma'am," he said, half joking.

Some of the severity left her face as her fingers lost their iron grip but she still looked as if she was contemplating raising her voice again. Which, he'd admit, was a turn on along with the hair pulling. Goddamnit.

Holding Vergil close he finally managed to ask the question that had bounced around his mind ever since Nero stopped them atop the Qliphoth, when she'd stayed by his side in Hell even after the tree had been cut, when she let him touch her and claim her without protest.

"Will you stay?"

"If you'll have me."

"Always."

Then, because they were getting too sappy, he couldn't help but add, "You know I'm a sucker for punishment."

Her punch knocked him right on his ass.


End file.
